New US charges against Julian Assange could spell decades behind barsJulian Assange could face decades in a US prison after being charged with violating the Espionage Act by publishing classified information through WikiLeaks. Prosecutors announced 17 additional charges against Assange for publishing hundreds of thousands of secret diplomatic cables and files on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. WikiLeaks editor-in-chief, Kristinn Hrafnsson, labelled the new charges facing Assange as “the evil of lawlessness in its purest form”. The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press said the charges posed a “dire threat” to journalists publishing classified information in the public interest. Assange was charged on Thursday with conspiracy to receive national defense information, seven counts of obtaining national defense information and nine counts of disclosing national defense information.

Source: The Guardian May 23, 2019 20:22 UTC