Julian Assange came to public attention in 2006. Today, no one treats him neutrally. For some, Assange is an Internet journalist who has declassified spy materials, data on corruption in the highest echelons of power, war crimes and secrets of the diplomacy of leading states, others consider him a criminal or a terrorist. Julian Assange is even called a cyberhero.

The beginning of Assange's biography

The story of Julian Assange began in 1971 in a small town in northeastern Australia. On his mother, he comes from emigrants who arrived from Scotland and Ireland in Australia at the beginning of the 19th century. John Shipton - Julian's father - met his mother during a demonstration against the Vietnam War. As soon as the girl became pregnant, their relationship ended. Julian managed to see his father only at the age of 25. Already in 1972, the mother of the future journalist married the director of the traveling theater Brett Assange in order to somehow provide for herself and her son. The boy's childhood passed in constant traveling around the country.

Childhood and constant traveling

Seven years later, Christine, Julian's mother, separated from her husband. She began dating musician Leif Meynall (Hamilton). Soon Julian had a brother. But it turned out that the mother's new lover is a member of the Family sect. Enna Hamilton-Burn, the founder of the sect, forced followers to give her their newborn children, guided by some vague goals that were passed off as lofty. Christine, fearing for her son's fate, fled. From the age of 11 to 16, Julian's family was again on the move. In total, as a child, he changed 37 schools.

Passion for programming

Julian Assange would not be like this now if it were not for his passion for programming. At the age of 16, he bought a modem and started working on the Web under the name Mendax. This name, which has an allegorical meaning, he borrowed from the ancient Greek writer and scientist Horace. Splendide mendax is "noble liar". With his comrades, Julian founded the Worms Against Nuclear Killers organization. The guys became hackers. They were guided by the rule: do not damage systems, but extract information.

Hacking, training and arrests

When Julian Assange was 20, he was arrested in 1991 for hacking into the server of a Canadian telecommunications company. He was charged with 25 counts, after several interrogations he pleaded guilty to all. Then Julian simply paid the fine, as the company did not suffer significant damage. After this event, Assange began to deepen his knowledge. In 1994 he studied at the University of Queensland and from 2003 to 2006 at the University of Melbourne. The young man studied mathematics, physics, programming, but never received a degree.

Many who are interested in the biography of the founder of WikiLeaks know about the accusations of hacking a Canadian television company, but there are also little-known facts. Julian and his group hacked into the US Navy, the Pentagon, US and Australian government organizations, some educational institutions (Australian National University, Stanford), private companies (Motorola, Panasonic, Xerox).

After some time, Julian was arrested again. This time he was accused of stealing $500,000 from the accounts of the local Citibank. A more detailed check did not confirm the fears of the police, so the young man was released. In 1993, he even assisted the police with filing lawsuits, provided technical advice to an Australian child protection organization, and was involved in the launch of a free and open network providing access to the Internet for citizens and non-profit organizations.

New accusation - 1994. Gillian was charged with 31 counts, all related to hacker attacks. In 1996, six charges were dropped, and he pleaded guilty to the rest. Interesting fact: Julian hacked into the Australian Federal Police server while law enforcement officers were looking for him.

Another significant event in his biography during this period is the writing of a book. In 1997, Julian Assange, co-authored with Syulette Dreyfus, wrote Underground (in the Russian edition of Computer Underground. Stories of Hacking, Madness and Obsession), a book about hackers. In 2000, Julian wrote a command-line interface for search engines (Surfaw), which is now in the public domain.

Founding of WikiLeaks

In 1999, Julian Assange registered the leaks.org domain. The site was empty. The domain is now owned by Andreas Fink, CEO and owner of Iceland's backbone ISP. WikiLeaks officially appeared in 2007 in Sweden, but the domain was registered in 2006 (the same time the first publication appeared). It was this country that was chosen because it has strong laws on the anonymity of citizens and great loyalty to the activities of journalists. The first material that appeared on the site is publications about the execution of pirates in Somalia. It was emphasized that the document might not be authentic, but was obtained from a serious source in state intelligence.

Publications of classified documents

The creators of the site stated that in the first year of the project's existence they managed to collect more than 1.2 million documents. The purpose of WikiLeaks is to publish and analyze documents that have become available as a result of information leaks. Despite the name, WikiLeaks is not a wiki where readers can edit their own posts. However, anyone can become an anonymous source, it is enough to send your material to the editorial office.

Early publications included data on the war in Afghanistan (almost 77,000 documents previously inaccessible to the public), corruption in Kenya. Assange stated that he had access to more than 15,000 secret Pentagon documents, 100,000 papers on the course of the war in Afghanistan, tens of thousands of separate reports and orders regarding the war in Iraq, almost a thousand files on the content of prisoners in the American Guantanamo prison.

In 2010, Julian Assange enlisted the support of the Pirate Party, a political force in Sweden that opposes existing legislation, for Sweden's non-participation in long-distance organizations. In the same year, he was chosen "Person of the Year" by Time magazine (Readers' Choice). WikiLeaks then collected 20 thousand euros in donations in just a month.

Juleen Assange and Edward Snowden

In 2012, Assange announced that he would publish almost 2.5 million documents about the war in Syria, which would help people understand the real state of affairs and what is happening in this country. In 2013, more than 400 GB of information protected by a key was published. This key project promised to make it unknown in case of harm to someone from the leadership of the organization. This ensured the safety of Julian Assange himself and Edward Snowden.

An interesting fact about Assange's brainchild: the portal withstood all hacker attacks, including from the Pentagon, the PRC Public Security Bureau, the former head of Kenya, the Prime Minister of Bermuda, the Catholic and Mormon churches, the largest bank in Switzerland, some Russian companies (the attack was undertaken in response to the fact that the site published secret documentary data on the Holodomor). WikiLeaks has published more intelligence than all the rest of the world's press services put together.

Personal life, family and children

Julian was married only once. He married Teresa when they were 16 years old. From this woman, the journalist has a son, Daniel, who was born in 1998. Julian and Teresa broke up shortly before his next arrest. He raised his son on his own as a single father for fourteen years. Then Julian had to leave. Now he practically does not communicate with his own son, but does not hold a grudge against him, supports his father's work. It is also known that in 2006 Assange had a daughter from an unknown. Various sources have information that the man has at least four children, but in 2011 he told his biographer that he is the father of only one child - Daniel.

Harassment allegations

In 2010, Julian was accused of rape. A warrant for his arrest was issued in Sweden. The police accused him of having sex with a Swedish woman without contraception and against her will, while she was sleeping. The names of the victims were not disclosed, in documents and publications they are called "Miss A" and "Miss W". In most European countries, these acts are questionable but not directly criminalized, while in Sweden, refusing to use a condom constitutes a crime. It is generally accepted that the real reason for the arrest was the publication of classified data, and not rape. In 2012, Assange took refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy (London) and asked for political asylum. In 2017, the rape case was closed.

Blocking of accounts and accounts

In 2010, Assange's bank account was frozen. Representatives of the bank explained this measure by the fact that the client hides data about his real location. This was followed by the blocking of WikiLeaks accounts by the international payment system PayPal. The company's management said that this was done under pressure from the US State Department. A few days later, all payments to WikiLeaks were blocked by Visa and MasterCard. At the end of the same year, the accounts of Assange supporters on social networks began to be blocked. They were suspected of coordinating regular hacker attacks.

Shelter at the Ecuadorian embassy

Many are interested in where Julian Assange is now, did he manage to be arrested? As mentioned above, in 2012 Julian managed to hide from police persecution in the Ecuadorian embassy. The country agreed to grant political asylum to the journalist.

Where is Julian Assange now? For the sixth year now, he has been living in the Ecuadorian embassy, which is located in a residential apartment in central London. Any walk threatens him with a prison, and in order to get some air and make statements for journalists, he goes out onto the balcony. The fact is that the embassy is considered the territory of another country, that is, the London police cannot arrest Assange there.

And yet, where is Julian Assange now? He still lives in the embassy. Assange spoke about the conditions in which he has to live in September 2012 to a journalist from the Daily Mail newspaper. He said that he lives in a small room without a window, and the bed is replaced by a mattress on the floor. He has a computer connected to the Internet, several bookshelves, a treadmill, a shower and a small kitchenette. Every day a man runs 3-5 miles. He also plays sports under the guidance of a personal trainer.

Assange works seventeen hours a day. After his hiding in the Ecuadorian embassy, the WikiLeaks site does not stop working, new publications appear there. In his free time, Julian watches series and films, plays with a cat he recently adopted, communicates with embassy staff and attends lunches with them. In the embassy building, he walks around in jeans, sneakers and the national shirt of Ecuador, and puts on a formal suit when he needs to go out onto the balcony to make a statement.

The man says that he lacks communication with his family, and the police, who are constantly on duty at the embassy, interfere with sleep. The founder of WikiLeaks mentioned that he misses fishing, the sea and the mountains. Assange has no plans to leave his hiding place and denies rumors of moving to France or surrendering to US authorities. Julian became an Ecuadorian citizen in 2018. There is evidence that they want to issue a diplomatic passport for him so that he can not be afraid of arrest.

Assange's extreme statements

What is the founder of WikiLeaks doing now? He continues to work within the walls of the Embassy of Ecuador. From the latest statements, one can note the statements of Julian Assange about Theresa May, the Prime Minister of Great Britain. He commented on the expulsion of Russian diplomats from the country and said that he was not surprised by such a position. Julian Assange spoke very harshly about May. He said that the prime minister's actions can be regarded as weakness. A few minutes later, he sent another tweet to the social network. Julian Assange wrote about May that she is "a complete fool."

Julian Assange in culture

The world community responded vividly to Assange's activities. In 2012, the biographical drama film The Story of Julian Assange was released. The activity of this man turned out to be so interesting. The picture was filmed by director Robert Connolly commissioned by Australian television. The main character was played by debutant Alex Williams, he got used to the role of Julian Assange well. A film about Assange quickly became popular, following this picture, several more were shot. One of the documentaries - a three-hour story in eight parts - details the ideology of WikiLeaks.

Creator of the WikiLeaks website

An Australian programmer who founded the WikiLeaks Internet resource in 2006, specializing in laying out "leaked" classified information. He is its chief editor. In December 2010, he was arrested on charges of rape, but was soon released on bail. In June 2012, he escaped from arrest and took refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where he received political asylum two months later.

Julian Paul Assange (Julian Paul Assange) was born on July 3, 1971 in Townsville, on the northeast coast of Australia,,. There is very little information about his early life, and they are taken from rare interviews given by him to the press. Nothing is known about Assange's father, except that one of his ancestors was from China and bore the surname Sang. When Assange was one year old, his mother Christine (Christine) married the director of a traveling theater, and since then, Assange, along with her and his stepfather, constantly traveled around Australia with the theater. Assange's mother was a non-conformist from childhood and believed that school education could only discourage a child from knowledge and instead instill an unnecessary reverence for authorities. Therefore, she taught her son at home, only occasionally sending her to schools in cities where the theater stopped. When Assange was 9 years old, his mother divorced and married a musician, from whom she gave birth to another son. However, it soon became clear that her new husband was a member of the "Family" sect, whose founder, Anne Hamilton-Byrne, took newborn children from their mothers. Before Assange was 16 years old, he, along with his mother and half-brother, was hiding from his stepfather,.

In total, as a child, Assange changed 37 schools, but was actively fond of self-education, especially loved the exact sciences. Periodically, his mother gave him classes to university professors,. Near one of the houses that Assange's mother rented was a computer store. Assange often went there and acquired his first programming skills. When his mother saw his passion for programming, she moved into cheaper housing and bought Assange a Commodore 64 computer. Soon after, Assange got himself a modem and became interested in network security issues.

In the 1990s, Assange was engaged in programming, was the author of a number of programs related to network security and routers,,,. From at least 1991 to 2006, he signed in correspondence and projects with the pseudonym Proff,. He was also the administrator of Suburbia - one of Australia's first internet hosts,,. Judging by the notes in the mail conferences, he was also fond of politics. In 1998, Assange made a trip around the world, in particular, he visited Russia by driving along the Trans-Siberian Railway.

In 1997, together with Suelette Dreyfus, he co-authored the book "Undergound", which, in particular, described an episode about a group of hackers from Australia who in 1989-1991 hacked the networks of the US Department of Defense, Los Alamos National laboratory and telecommunications company Nortel , , , . In 1991, the Australian police caught them and in 1994 filed charges of illegal hacking, as a result, collecting a small fine in exchange for a guilty plea,,,. The press, in particular, the New Yorker and Wired, wrote that one of the characters in this story, a hacker named Mendax, was in fact Assange,,,,.

For the first time in public correspondence, Assange mentioned the Leaks project in 1996, three years later he acquired the leaks.org domain, but later wrote that he had not found a use for it. In the same years, according to the New Yorker, he, along with his mother, was an activist and founder of the Parent Inquiry Into Child Protection organization, which was engaged in exposing corruption in Australian health and social protection organizations (in those years, Assange was suing with his ex-wife to get his child back) , , .

In 2000, Assange called himself president of the Australian Institute for Collaborative Research (Australian Institute for Collaborative Research), after which he entered the University of Melbourne (University of Melbourne), where he studied physics. He criticized his colleagues - young scientists, accusing them of careerism, conformism and work for the military,,. Prior to that, Assange also studied at five other universities, including the Australian National University in Canberra (Australian National University), but he never graduated from a single institution of higher education,,. In 2006-2007 he blogged on his own website, Iq.org.

In 2006, Assange decided to establish a website to publish various classified or non-public information exposing corruption and abuse in government organizations and corporations. Created for these purposes, the WikiLeaks Internet resource worked on the basis of the mediawiki "engine", similar to the one on which Wikipedia operates, in order to facilitate the creation of new and editing existing exposing materials. However, the outer shell was only the "tip of the iceberg", since the mechanism for obtaining new compromising data was based on a complex system of gateways and protocols in order to leave the sources of "leaks" anonymous. New materials were selected and published by the editors, and the discussion between the editors also went through encrypted channels. In addition to Assange, who called himself editor-in-chief, the site's "council of advisers" board included Australian journalist Phillip Adams and Chinese dissident Wang Dan. One of the tasks of this system was to make it impossible to "remove" the material once published from the network , , , .

The Swedish company PRQ.se was chosen as a provider for WikiLeaks, which provided hosting with a guarantee that the hosted site would not be closed by court order. Another famous project associated with this provider was The Pirate Bay torrent portal,,.

One of Assange's aides was the host of the Tor system, which allowed information to be received and transmitted over the network fairly anonymously. Starting to scan the traffic on his site, he managed to intercept a document according to which the leader of the Somali rebels, the Islamic Courts Union, called for the hire of hitmen to kill members of the legitimate government of Somalia. The authenticity of this document was disputed, but Assange decided to publish it on his website, providing a commentary inviting site visitors to discuss the authenticity of the material for themselves. Even then, the press drew attention to the new site, and at first it was reported that it was created by Chinese dissidents,,.

At first, the purpose of WikiLeaks was to expose corruption in the countries of Central Asia, China and Russia, but it was also given great importance to expose the activities of governments and corporations in the West. According to Assange, the site was created, among other things, in order to develop "scientific journalism", which he opposed to the excessive caution and partisanship of the ordinary press.

In April 2010, WikiLeaks released classified video footage of a 2007 helicopter attack on Reuters journalists and their escorts in the vicinity of Baghdad, who were mistaken by the US military for terrorists (the title of the video is "collateral murder"). Then 18 people died, including two journalists. This video caused a great resonance in the press,. In May 2010, U.S. Army Private Bradley Manning was arrested on suspicion of being involved in the transmission of this WikiLeaks video. It was assumed that he could be involved in the next high-profile leak published on the WikiLeaks website in July: it was 77,000 secret field reports on the US war in Afghanistan, which contained reports on operations, civilian casualties and the names of American informants, which posed a threat to their lives. About 15 thousand more documents, the site editors promised to post later,,,,,, moreover, representatives of the US Department of Defense turned to WikiLeaks representatives with a proposal to abandon these plans (the fact of negotiations in the Ministry denied). This leak became the largest in US history after the publication in the early 1970s of the Pentagon Papers, proving that the administration of US President Lyndon Johnson (Lyndon Johnson) sought to escalate the conflict,.

After the video of the attack on journalists in Baghdad was published, Assange announced that he did not intend to visit the United States anymore and subsequently appeared live at conferences and meetings in other countries without notice, and sometimes his friends spoke instead of him, explaining this by the presence of American intelligence agents in the hall. However, even before uploading this video, Assange was extremely scrupulous about his safety and often changed his place of residence, staying with friends in different countries of the world: from Iceland to Kenya , , , , . In particular, it was in Iceland that he prepared for publication a scandalous video of a helicopter attack and there he participated in the preparation of a law on the protection of freedom of speech, which could in the future allow WikiLeaks to transfer servers to the territory of this country and no longer be afraid of political persecution,.

Assange spent much of his time in Sweden, where in August 2010 he became a columnist for the newspaper Aftonbladet, but in the same month, the country's police put him on the wanted list on charges of raping two women. Assange himself denied his guilt, and soon the warrant for his arrest was withdrawn, because the prosecutor's office decided that the suspicions against the Australian were groundless,. However, in the same month, the US Attorney's Office announced that they intended to accuse Assange of inciting the theft of state property.

In the summer of 2010, after a sharp increase in media attention to WikiLeaks, Assange began to criticize unnamed participants in the project, united under the auspices of "WikiLeaks Insider". In particular, Assange was accused of embezzlement of donations, the desire to hide with money and abandon the site and usurpation of power in a project together with Daniel Schmidt (Daniel Schmidt) , , , , , , . And after Assange was charged with rape in Sweden, Birgitta Jonsdottir, a member of the Icelandic parliament, suggested that he temporarily step down as a representative of WikiLeaks. In October 2010, Swedish authorities denied Assange a residence permit or a permanent work permit, which he had applied for earlier in the year.

In November 2010, following a second appeal by prosecutors, a court in Stockholm issued an arrest warrant for Assange on charges of rape and harassment. The founder of WikiLeaks himself was in the UK at that time, and his representatives announced his readiness to meet with representatives of the Swedish prosecutor's office. Nevertheless, on November 30, two days after the publication of new materials by the US diplomatic corps by WikiLeaks, Assange was put on the international wanted list by Interpol on charges of sexual crimes,,. On December 7, he was arrested by the London police, but on December 14, the court announced that Assange would be released on bail of 200 thousand pounds, on the condition that he surrender his passport and wear an electronic sensor,.

On February 24, 2011, the UK Belmarsh Magistrates Court ruled to extradite Assange to Sweden,. The WikiLeaks founder's defense filed an appeal with the London High Court, which on November 2, 2011 upheld the lower court's decision. After that, Assange's lawyers could only appeal to the Supreme Court of England,. On May 30, this instance also confirmed the decision to extradite Assange,.

In April 2012, Assange made his debut as a TV presenter on the Russian TV channel broadcasting in English Russia Today. In his first broadcast, he interviewed the leader of the Lebanese Hezbollah movement, Hassan Nasrallah,.

On June 19, 2012, Assange requested political asylum in Ecuador. It soon became known that he was staying on the territory of the country's embassy in London until the decision of the authorities on granting or not granting asylum. Since Assange violated the terms of his release on bail (spent the night not in the approved place), the British authorities announced their readiness to arrest him as soon as he left the walls of the embassy,. On August 16, the Ecuadorian authorities announced their agreement to grant political asylum to Assange. At the same time, official London emphasized that this circumstance could not prevent Assange's extradition. According to media reports, for this purpose, the British authorities could deprive the embassy of diplomatic status, which was allowed in such cases by British law, however, British Foreign Secretary William Hague stated that they would not storm the Ecuadorian embassy for the sake of Assange. On August 19, Assange made his first public appearance from the balcony of the embassy in a long time. In his speech, he demanded that the United States stop the "witch hunt" (in relation to WikiLeaks and Manning), and also expressed support for the members of the Russian punk band Pussy Riot, shortly before that, sentenced to two years in prison in Moscow,. On August 26, 2012, Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa announced that the British authorities had abandoned their intention to storm his country's embassy in London. In addition, the British Foreign Office sent an official letter to the Ecuadorian embassy with a proposal to continue negotiations on the extradition of Assange.

For the publication of compromising materials against the Kenyan president in 2008, Assange was awarded the Amnesty International award,. In 2010, he was named one of the 100 most influential figures in the media by The Guardian newspaper. In 2011, the Australian human rights foundation Syndey Peace Foundation presented Assange with its highest award: a gold medal for "exceptional bravery in defense of human rights".

The New Yorker noted that Assange is extremely passionate about his work and at the same time extremely absent-minded in everyday life: he constantly needs personal assistants, because he often forgets to pay for booked flights or pack clothes with him before moving. Among other members of the WikiLeaks editorial board, the Dutchman Rop Gonggrijp was named Assange's close aides. The press reported that Assange's favorite writers were Alexander Solzhenitsyn and Franz Kafka.

Assange also kept his personal details private. According to the New Yorker magazine, his first wife left him in 1991 due to a burglary, taking their son, Daniel (Daniel). In 1999, Assange, along with his mother, were able to sue Daniel, but, according to the same publication, due to stress, Assange's hair, which was previously dark, turned gray for life,,. Judging by Assange's blog, in the mid-2000s, he could have had another child,. As of 2010, Daniel Assange, a geneticist by training, worked as a programmer,.

Used materials

Ecuador: UK Wikileaks" Julian Assange "threat" over. - BBC News, 26.08.2012

Julian Assange takes aim at US as diplomatic row deepens. - The Guardian, 20.08.2012

Julian Assange condemns imprisonment of Bradley Manning and Pussy Riot. - straight.com, 19.08.2012

Julian Assange: Ecuador grants Wikileaks founder asylum. - BBC News, 16.08.2012

Mohammed Abbas, Alessandra Prentice. Britain says Assange Ecuador asylum wouldn't change a thing. - Reuters, 16.08.2012

William Hague says there is "no threat" to storm Ecuadorian embassy. - The Telegraph, 16.08.2012

Police seek WikiLeaks founder Assange's arrest after asylum claim. - CNN, 21.06.2012

Donna Bowater. Julian Assange faces re-arrest over breaching his bail condition by seeking asylum in Ecuador. - The Telegraph, 20.06.2012

Alexandra Valencia, Avril Ormsby. WikiLeaks" Assange seeks asylum at Ecuador embassy. - Reuters, 19.06.2012

Atika Shubert. WikiLeaks" Assange loses sex case appeal but will fight on. - CNN, 30.05.2012

Nasrallah to Assange: Hezbollah talked to Syria opposition; we want dialogue, US & Israel want civil war. - Russia Today, 17.04.2012

Miriam Elder. WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange's TV show to be aired on Russian channel. - The Guardian, 25.01.2012

Robert Booth. Julian Assange loses appeal against extradition. - The Guardian, 02.11.2011

Atika Shubert. Assange loses fight against extradition. - CNN, 02.11.2011

Julian Assange awarded Australian peace prize. - The Guardian, 11.05.2011

Julian Assange extradition decision: full judgment. - The Guardian, 24.02.2011

Cassandra Vinograd. Judge says WikiLeaks" Assange can be extradited to Sweden over sex crimes claims. - The Associated Press, 24.02.2011

Nick Collins. WikiLeaks: celebrities offer to pay Julian Assange "s bail. - The Telegraph, 15.12.2010

Julian Assange freed on bail. - The Guardian, 14.12.2010

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange arrested in London. - BBC News, 07.12.2010

Yard receive arrest warrant for Assange. - Independent Television News (ITN), 07.12.2010

Interpol Issues Arrest Warrant for WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange. - fox news, 30.11.2010

US cuts access to files as Interpol seeks Assange. - The Associated Press, 30.11.2010

Joseph Krauss. WikiLeaks unleashes flood of confidential US cables. - Agence France-Presse, 28.11.2010

Wikileaks" Assange to face international arrest warrant. - BBC News, 18.11.2010

Julian Paul Assange Born July 3, 1971 in Townsville, Australia. Australian Internet journalist and TV presenter, founder of WikiLeaks. In large volumes, he published top-secret materials about spy scandals, corruption in the highest echelons of power, war crimes and the secrets of diplomacy of the great powers.

On the maternal side, Assange comes from Scottish and Irish emigrants who arrived in Australia in the middle of the 19th century. His father was a man named John Shipton, who met Julian's mother, Christine Hawkins, at a demonstration against the Vietnam War. Their relationship ended when she became pregnant. Julian first met his father when he was 25. In 1972, his mother married traveling theater director Richard Assange, and Julian spent his childhood on the move.

In 1979, Christine broke up with Richard and began dating musician Leif Meynall (Hamilton), soon they had a son.

However, it soon turned out that the mother's new chosen one was a member of the Family sect founded by Ann Hamilton-Burn. Members of this sect give newborn babies to the founder. The mother, fearing for the fate of her son, ran away. Therefore, from 11 to 16 years old, Julian was again in constant travel.

Assange got into programming early. At 16, he bought a modem and began working on pre-Internet networks under the name Mendax. The meaning of his Internet pseudonym is related to Horace's oxymoron splendide mendax - a noble (magnificent) liar. Julian, together with his comrades, creates an organization of hackers "Worms Against Nuclear Killers" (Russian Worms against nuclear killers), in their activities they were guided by a kind of code: do not damage systems, but share information.

In 1991, Assange was then 20 years old, he and his accomplices were arrested for hacking into the central server of the Canadian telecommunications company Nortel Networks. After several interrogations, he pleaded guilty to all 25 counts. Assange escaped with a fine because the company suffered minor damage. Assange went to get his first higher education at the University of Melbourne, at the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics. However, he dropped out of school, because it seemed to him that the military were the sponsors and, as a result, the regulators of the educational process.

Some time later, he was detained on suspicion of stealing $500,000 from Citibank accounts. However, the verification of suspicions did not confirm.

Julian has gone through several IT careers, authored a number of programs related to network security (such as Rubberhose) and routing, and was even a computer security consultant for a while.

Wikileaks

In 2006, Assange founded the website Wikileaks. Realizing that he would have to deal with very sensitive materials, he decided that Sweden, known for its loyalty to journalists, would be the “home” of the main server. In December of the same year, the first material appeared on the WikiLeaks resource: "Decision of the Islamic Court of Somalia on the execution of government officials." The portal emphasized that the document may not be real, but "obtained from a serious source in US intelligence."

Assange, of course, never revealed his informants. Those, in turn, can feel completely safe. Before getting to the WikiLeaks page, the information is simultaneously duplicated on all portal servers, so it is impossible to trace it.

Assange sent to Al Jazeera, The Guardian, Der Spiegel and The New York Times about 100,000 classified documents on the progress of the war in Afghanistan, as well as tens of thousands of documents on the war in Iraq. Some of the documents concern the execution of civilians. After the publication of some evidence, especially video information, an international scandal erupted.

Assange also stated that he had about 15,000 more secret Pentagon documents at his disposal.

In August 2010, as part of his visit to Sweden, Assange signed an agreement with the local Pirate Party to host part of the WikiLeaks servers on its sites, which will provide the project with political support on the world stage.

In July 2012, Assange announced that Wikileaks would publish about 2.4 million documents related to the conflict in Syria. According to Assange, the release of documents will help people better understand what is happening in this country.

In August 2013, WikiLeaks published links to download documents of more than 400 gigabytes, but the files are protected by a key that the project promises to make known in case of harm to any of the key figures of the organization, first of all, this security guarantee concerns Julian Assange and Edward Snowden.

Criminal case against Julian Assange

On August 20, 2010, an arrest warrant for Assange was issued in Sweden. According to The Local newspaper, Assange is suspected of sexual harassment and rape.

Specifically, the Swedish police suspect Assange of having: had sexual intercourse with a Swedish woman (her name is not disclosed, she is referred to as “Miss A” in the documents) without a condom, despite her requests; had sexual intercourse with "Miss W", without a condom, while she was sleeping.

In the vast majority of European countries, such actions, which are ethically very dubious, nevertheless do not constitute a crime. However, in Sweden they are subject to criminal prosecution. There is a version in the press that the simple jealousy of two rivals: feminist Anna Ardin and photographer Sofia Vilen could become the motive for filing an application against Assange. The reason for this assumption was the assertion of one of these women that Assange entered into a relationship with her, without mentioning a parallel affair with another.

Assange himself denied everything and wrote a letter to one of the Stockholm newspapers, in which he complained that these accusations appeared for a reason and were connected with publications on WikiLeaks of the so-called. "Afghan dossier". The next day, Swedish authorities dropped the rape charges against Julian.

On September 1, 2010, the rape case was reopened by the Swedish authorities. Prosecutor Marianne Ny said: "There are reasons to believe that the crime was committed after all." On November 18, 2010, a Swedish court issued an arrest warrant for the founder of Wikileaks. The next day, Assange's Swedish lawyer appealed the court's decision. Assange moved to London. On December 1, 2010, Interpol issued a warrant for his arrest, he was put on the international wanted list.

On December 7, 2010, Assange was arrested after voluntarily reporting to the police station. The basis for the arrest was a warrant issued by the Swedish prosecutor's office. Assange's defense insists that the extradition request was politically motivated.

Assange created the website www.swedenversusassange.com (the translation of the site's name is "Sweden against Assange"), where he sets out his vision of the entire trial, gives arguments in his defense and the opinions of influential experts on the course of the case and the actions of the Swedish and British authorities.

On December 14, 2010, he was released from custody by a London court on bail of £240,000, after which Assange was in the UK on bail pending trial, which took place in London on February 6-7, 2011.

On February 24, 2011, the British court decided to extradite Assange to Sweden. Rejecting the appeal, the High Court of London on November 2, 2011 upheld the decision to extradite Assange to Sweden. Assange appealed the decision to the UK Supreme Court, which upheld the extradition order in February 2012. In June 2012, the UK Supreme Court again rejected the appeal of Assange's lawyers, in which they demanded a review of the decision to extradite their client to Sweden.

To date, Assange has not been formally charged with anything. The Swedish police say they just want to interrogate Assange to clarify the circumstances of the case. Official representatives of the Ecuadorian embassy, where Assange received political asylum and has been living for more than a year, offered the Swedish police to interrogate Assange in the embassy building, but were refused without explanation.

On December 6, 2010, the Swiss bank PostFinance announced the freezing of Assange's accounts. The bank's press release states that the reason for the freezing of accounts is that Assange provided the bank with false information about his place of residence.

On December 3, 2010, the international payment system PayPal blocked the WikiLeaks account, explaining its step by the fact that the payment system cannot be used to carry out illegal activities. According to the vice president of the company, this was done at the request of the US State Department.

On December 7, 2010, the international payment systems Visa and MasterCard blocked all payments to the WikiLeaks website. The press service of the European division of Visa emphasized that this step is not related to exerting pressure on the payment system from officials, and that the WikiLeaks business structure is currently being studied by lawyers for possible violations of Visa rules.

On December 9, 2010, social resources Facebook and Twitter began blocking the accounts of Assange supporters on suspicion of coordinating hacker attacks.

On May 30, 2012, the Supreme Court of England rejected the appeal for extradition to Sweden. On June 19, Assange, who was under house arrest, took refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy in London and asked the leadership of the South American country for political asylum. The police considered this a violation of the conditions of house arrest and said that he would be arrested the moment he left the embassy. However, the police cannot enter the building of the diplomatic mission, which has immunity. Assange's mother arrived in Ecuador at the end of July 2012 to personally ask the leaders of this state for political asylum for her son.

On August 16, 2012 at 13:00 London time, Ecuador officially granted Assange political asylum. All these two and a half months, Assange was on the territory of the embassy and did not leave it. Initially, it was reported that the police would storm the embassy to arrest Assange, but later British Foreign Secretary William Hague said that there would be no storming of the embassy, but the authorities could take away the diplomatic status of the embassy, referring to the Diplomatic Premises Act, according to which it perhaps in the case of using the territory of the embassy not for diplomatic purposes, but for sheltering a criminal.

Assange's choice of Ecuador as a hideout was not accidental, since back in 2010 the Ecuadorian Foreign Ministry offered him political asylum.

On August 19, 2012, Assange delivered a 10-minute speech from a balcony on the first floor of the Ecuadorian embassy. During the speech, the London police were a few meters from him and if he appeared on the street, they would immediately be arrested.

At the embassy, which is housed in an apartment building on Hans Crescent in Knightsbridge, central London, Assange lives in a small room that includes a makeshift shower, a single bed, a computer, a treadmill and a sunlamp. On September 27, 2012, the United States recognized Julian Assange as an enemy of the state.

At the end of September 2012, in an interview with the Daily Mail, Assange spoke about the conditions of his life at the embassy. The small studio room has a mattress, bookshelves, a round table, leather chairs, a treadmill, and a fluorescent lamp. He compared his stay at the embassy with living on a space station. Assange works 17 hours a day, runs several kilometers on the track, boxing, doing gymnastics, watching movies and TV shows. The lack of sunlight makes up for vitamin D and an ultraviolet lamp. He eats fresh food brought to him by friends and embassy staff.

In the summer of 2013, Time magazine reporter Michael Gruenwald posted on Twitter that he was eager to write "an article in support of a drone attack that would neutralize Julian Assange." Time magazine denied his statement, calling the entry offensive. The WikiLeaks portal team sent an official letter to the editorial office with a request to fire Grunwald.

The websites of organizations and individuals that somehow contributed to the arrest of Assange and WikiLeaks accounts were subjected to massive cyber attacks:

1.PayPal payment system - the site is blocked and the electronic payment processing system is broken.
2. MasterCard payment system - similar.
3. Visa payment system - similarly.
4.Bank PostFinance - violation of the ability to carry out online banking.
5. The site of Senator Joe Lieberman (the first government-level site) - who lobbied for the adoption of a law according to which Assange can be held accountable on charges of espionage.
6. The page and personal e-mail of the former governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin, who called for the physical elimination of Assange.
7.Website of a lawyer representing 2 Swedes, on charges of raping whom Assange was arrested.
8. Website of the Swedish government.
9. The site of the Swedish prosecutor's office, at the request of which Assange was arrested.
10. Portal of the online store Amazon.com - on the servers of which WikiLeaks worked until December 8, 2010, after which it was evicted.

Through the Twitter community, an appeal was issued by the Anonymous hacker group, which unites several thousand members who called themselves "enemies of the enemies of WikiLeaks", according to which the organization took responsibility for the cyber attacks carried out and announced that it was planning new attacks against any individuals and organizations that were somehow involved to detain Assange or obstruct the work of WikiLeaks, including to the websites of Interpol, the governments of the United States, France and Australia, the Moneybookers payment system, and, again, to the Amazon.com website. “As an organization, we have always taken an uncompromising stance against those who interfere with free speech on the Internet. We feel that WikiLeaks is doing something more important than leaking documents."

Since April 17, 2012, Assange has hosted a program called The World Tomorrow on the Russia Today TV channel (in English, Spanish and Arabic). The last episode aired on July 3rd.

On March 17, 2012, Assange tweeted on Twitter that he would consider running for the Australian Senate in 2013.

In 2008, Assange received an award from Amnesty International for his publication of materials on corruption in Kenya's leadership.

In 2010, The Guardian ranked Julian Assange at number 58 on its list of the 100 most influential people in the media. At the end of 2010, Assange was voted Person of the Year by the readers of Time magazine, the magazine itself gave this title to Mark Zuckerberg. In 2010, Vedomosti awarded Assange the title of "Private Person of the Year". In 2011, the Australian magazine Zoo Weekly named Assange "the worst Australian of the year" (Un-Australian of the year 2011). It is believed that this annual ranking is somewhat frivolous.

In May 2011, the Sydney Peace Foundation presented Assange with a gold medal for "extraordinary courage in the defense of human rights". On February 3, 2013, Yoko Ono (the widow of John Lennon) presented Assange with an award for courage in the arts. On June 24, 2013 he became a laureate of the Union of Journalists of Kazakhstan in the nomination "journalistic investigation".

In February 2012, the 500th episode of the cult American animated series The Simpsons aired, where Assange voiced himself.

In 2012, the Australian feature film The Julian Assange Story was released about the beginning of Assange's activities, his hero was played by Alex Williams.

In 2012, the short film "Julian" directed by Matthew Moore, produced in Australia, was released - about the school years of Julian's life (1981, 9 years old, 4th grade of elementary school), when his character traits already appeared: a passionate desire to tell the truth about everything leads to the first serious conflicts. His role was played by Ed Oxenbold, who was nominated for this role in the category "Best Actor" by the Australian Film Institute. The film was awarded the Crystal Globe for Best Short Film at the Berlin Film Festival in 2012.

In 2013, the feature film "The Fifth Estate" (Belgium-USA-UK) was shot, about the life of Assange and the activities of the WikiLeaks project. He is played by British actor Benedict Cumberbatch.

In 2013, the documentary "Mediastan" was released in response to the Hollywood thriller "The Fifth Estate".

In September 2014, Assange took part as a model in the fashion show of Benjamin Westwood, the son of the famous designer Vivienne Westwood. The show took place at the Embassy of Ecuador.

On January 22, 2016, the UN Working Group on Personal Integrity sent a document to the governments of the United Kingdom and Sweden, asking for an assessment of the situation in order to guarantee Assange's security and integrity, to grant the right to freedom of movement and to ensure that his rights are respected in accordance with international standards governing the procedure for imprisonment, and also pay compensation.

On February 5, 2016, the Swedish government stated that it did not agree with the decision of the working group, and that Assange had voluntarily decided to stay in the Ecuadorian embassy and had the opportunity to leave it at any time.

In December 2018, the President of Ecuador received written assurances from the UK that Assange would not be extradited to the United States after his arrest.

On April 11, 2019, the Ecuadorian authorities deprived Assange of asylum at their embassy in the UK. British police officers entered the embassy grounds to take Assange with them at the ambassador's invitation. , where he will remain before appearing before Westminster Magistrates' Court on a charge of failing to appear in court. The arrest was made on a warrant issued by the Westminster Magistrates' Court on June 29, 2012.

Julian Assange Height: 188 centimeters

Julian Assange Personal Life:

Julian Assange was married once. From his ex-wife Teresa (they married when they were 16), he has a son, Daniel, born in 1989. Julian broke up with Teresa shortly before his arrest. He himself raised Daniel as a single father for 14 years. After that, Julian left and now practically does not communicate with his son, but he does not hold a grudge against him and supports his activities.

In 2006, Julian had a daughter from an unknown woman.

Many sources state that Julian has at least four children (he was present at the birth of three), but in 2011 he told his biographer Andrew O'Hagan that Daniel was his only child.

Julian Assange is a cult and controversial figure of our time, arousing interest among the world community. The characteristics of the Australian's activities are given in different ways: for some, Assange is a truth-seeking journalist, for others, a terrorist, and still others call Julian a cyberhero. For the Internet resource WikiLeaks, whose specialization is based on the publication of "top-secret information", Julian Assange is considered one of the most influential people in the international media.

Childhood and youth

Julian Paul Assange was born on July 3, 1971 in Townsville, Australia. The boy's parents were political activist John Shipton and makeup artist Christine Ann Hawkins, who broke up before their son was born. The child's maternal ancestors were Scottish and Irish by nationality. After the birth of Julian, the mother married the owner of a traveling theater, Richard Brett Assange, who gave the name to his adopted son.

Material from Wikipedia

Julian Paul Assange(English) Julian Paul Assange[əˈsɑːnʒ]; born July 3, 1971, Townsville, Australia) is an Internet journalist, founder of Wikileaks.

Biography

On the maternal side, she comes from Scottish and Irish emigrants who arrived in Australia in the middle of the 19th century.

Julian Assange was born in 1971 in Townsville, North East Australia.

In 1972, his mother, Claire (Christine), married the director of a traveling theater, and Julian spent his childhood in continuous moving.

In 1979, the mother broke up with the director of the theater and began dating the musician, and soon they had a son.

hacking

Julian Assange became interested in programming early. At the age of 16, he bought himself a modem and began to work in networks that predate the Internet, under the nickname Mendax (Eng. mendax). The meaning of his Internet pseudonym is associated with Horace's oxymoron splendide mendax - a noble (magnificent) liar. Julian, together with his comrades, creates an organization of hackers Worms Against Nuclear Killers - “Worms Against Nuclear Killers”, in their activities they were guided by a kind of code: do not damage systems, but share information

In 1991, Assange, then 20, was arrested with his accomplices for hacking into the central server of the Canadian telecommunications company Nortel. After several interrogations, he pleaded guilty to all 25 counts. Assange escaped with a fine because the company suffered minor damage. Assange went to get his first higher education at the University of Melbourne, at the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics. However, he dropped out of school, because it seemed to him that the military were the sponsors and, as a result, the regulators of the educational process. [ source?]

Some time later, he was detained on suspicion of stealing $500,000 from Citibank accounts. However, verification of suspicions did not confirm.

Julian has gone through several IT careers, has authored a number of programs related to network security and routing, and has even been a computer security consultant for a while. [ source?]

In 1997 he co-authored Underground with Soulette Dreyfus.

Wikileaks

Main article: Wikileaks

In 2006, Assange founded the website. Realizing that he would have to deal with very sensitive materials, he decided that Sweden, known for its loyalty to journalists, would be the “home” of the main server. In December of the same year, the first material appeared on the WikiLeaks resource: "Decision of the Islamic Court of Somalia on the execution of government officials." The portal emphasized that the document may not be real, but "obtained from a serious source in US intelligence."

Julian Assange sent Al Jazeera, The Guardian, Der Spiegel and The New York Times about 100,000 secret documents on the course of the war in Afghanistan. Some of the documents concern the execution of civilians. After the publication of some documents, an international scandal erupted.

Assange also stated that he had about 15,000 more secret Pentagon documents at his disposal.

In August 2010, as part of his visit to Sweden, Julian Assange signed an agreement with the local Pirate Party to host part of the Wikileaks servers on its sites, which will provide the project with political support on the world stage.

persecution

sex scandal

On August 20, 2010, an arrest warrant was issued in Sweden for the founder of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange. According to The Local newspaper, Assange was suspected of sexual harassment and rape.

Assange is accused of the following:

that he had sexual intercourse with a Swedish woman (her name is not disclosed, she is referred to as “Miss A” in the documents) without a condom, despite her requests.

that he had intercourse with "Miss W", without a condom, while she was sleeping

There is a version in the press that the simple jealousy of two rivals could be the reason for filing a complaint against Assange: feminists Anna Ardin and photographer Sofia Vilen. Assange himself denied everything and wrote a letter to one of the Stockholm newspapers, in which he complained that these accusations appeared for a reason, and were connected with the publications on WikiLeaks of the so-called. "Afghan dossier". The next day, Swedish authorities dropped the rape charges against Julian Assange.

On September 1, 2010, the rape case was reopened by the Swedish authorities. Prosecutor Marianne Ny said: "there is reason to believe that the crime was committed after all." On November 18, 2010, a Swedish court issued an arrest warrant for the founder of Wikileaks. The next day, Assange's Swedish lawyer appealed the court's decision. Julian Assange moved to London. On December 1, 2010, Interpol issued a warrant for his arrest, he was put on the international wanted list.

Bank account blocking in Switzerland

Blocking of WikiLeaks accounts by international payment systems

On December 3, 2010, the international payment system PayPal blocked the WikiLinks account, explaining its step by the fact that the payment system cannot be used to carry out illegal activities.

On December 7, 2010, the international payment systems Visa and MasterCard blocked all payments to the WikiLeaks website. The press service of the European division of Visa emphasized that this step is not related to pressure on the payment system by officials, and that the WikiLeaks business structure is currently being studied by lawyers for possible violations of Visa rules.