Julian Assange facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Julian Assange
Assange in 2014
Born	Julian Paul Hawkins (1971-07-03) 3 July 1971 (age 53) Townsville, Queensland, Australia
Citizenship	Australia Ecuador (2017–2021)
Occupation	Editor publisher activist
Years active	1987–present
Known for	Founding WikiLeaks
Title	Director and editor-in-chief of WikiLeaks (2006–2018); publisher (since 2018)
Political party	WikiLeaks (2013–2015)
Spouse(s)	Teresa Assange ​ ​ (m. 1989; div. 1999)​ Stella Assange ​ ​ (m. 2022)​
Awards	Full list
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Julian Paul Assange (born 3 July 1971) is an Australian computer programmer, publisher and journalist. He is best known as editor-in-chief of WikiLeaks, a website that posts news leaks. He started the website in 2006.

Early life

Assange was born Julian Paul Hawkins on 3 July 1971 in Townsville, Queensland, to Christine Ann Hawkins (b. 1951), a visual artist, and John Shipton, an anti-war activist and builder. The couple separated before Assange was born. When Julian was a year old, his mother married Brett Assange, an actor with whom she ran a small theatre company and whom Julian regards as his father (choosing Assange as his surname). Christine and Brett Assange divorced around 1979.

Julian had to move a lot in childhood, living in more than 30 Australian towns and cities by the time he reached his mid-teens. Assange attended many schools, including Goolmangar Primary School in New South Wales (1979–1983) and Townsville State High School in Queensland as well as being schooled at home.

He studied programming, mathematics and physics at Central Queensland University (1994) and the University of Melbourne (2003–2006), but did not complete a degree.

Career beginnings

In 1987, aged 16, Assange began hacking under the name Mendax. He and two others, known as "Trax" and "Prime Suspect", formed a hacking group they called "the International Subversives".

In the spring of 1991, the three hackers began targeting MILNET, a secret data network used by the US military. Assange later said they "had control over it for two years." The three also regularly hacked into the Australia's National University's systems. In 1994, Assange was charged him with 31 counts of hacking and related crimes. In December 1996, he pleaded guilty to 24 charges (the others were dropped) and was ordered to pay reparations of A$2,100 and released on a good behaviour bond. He received a lenient penalty due to the absence of malicious or mercenary intent and his disrupted childhood.

Assange, c. 2006

Assange began programming in 1994. In 1998, he co-founded the company Earthmen Technology.

WikiLeaks

Assange at the "New Media Days 09" in Copenhagen November 2009

Assange and Daniel Domscheit-Berg at the 26C3 in Berlin, December 2009

Assange and others established WikiLeaks in 2006. Assange became a member of the organisation's advisory board and described himself as the editor-in-chief. From 2007 to 2010, Assange travelled continuously on WikiLeaks business, visiting Africa, Asia, Europe and North America. During this time, the organisation published internet censorship lists, leaks, and classified media from anonymous sources. Assange came to wide international attention in 2010 when WikiLeaks published a series of leaks from US Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning: footage of a US airstrike in Baghdad, US military logs from the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, and US diplomatic cables.

As of July 2015, Assange said WikiLeaks had published more than ten million documents and associated analyses; he described it as "a giant library of the world's most persecuted documents".

The U.S. established an Information Review Task Force (IRTF) to investigate the impact of WikiLeaks' publications. It involved as many as 125 people working over ten months. According to IRTF reports, the leaks could cause "serious damage" and put foreign US sources at risk.

Ecuadorian embassy period and arrest

In November 2010, Sweden issued a European arrest warrant for Assange, for questioning in a Swedish investigation. After losing his appeal against the warrant, he breached bail and took refuge in the Embassy of Ecuador in London in June 2012. He was granted asylum by Ecuador in August 2012 on the grounds of political persecution and fears he might be extradited to the United States. On 11 April 2019, Assange's asylum was withdrawn following a series of disputes with Ecuadorian authorities. The police were invited into the embassy and he was arrested.

Following his arrest, the US revealed a previously sealed 2018 US indictment in which Assange was charged with conspiracy to commit computer intrusion related to his involvement with Chelsea Manning and WikiLeaks.

Later developments

In May 2019 and June 2020, the U.S. government unsealed new indictments against Assange, charging him with violating the Espionage Act of 1917 and alleging he had conspired with hackers. Assange was incarcerated in HM Prison Belmarsh in London from April 2019 to June 2024, while the United States government's extradition effort was contested in the British courts.

In June 2024, Assange agreed a plea deal with U.S. prosecutors. He pleaded guilty in the District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands to a charge of conspiring to obtain and disclose classified U.S. national defence documents under the Espionage Act in order to avoid potential imprisonment. Under the terms of the deal, Justice Department prosecutors sought a sentence that allowed for his immediate release. He was ordered to instruct WikiLeaks to destroy the information given by Manning, providing an affidavit. Assange immediately left Saipan for Canberra, Australia, with former Australia prime minister and ambassador to the U.S. Kevin Rudd.

Writings, talk show, and opinions

In 2012 Assange hosted World Tomorrow show, broadcast by Russian network RT.

Assange's book When Google Met WikiLeaks was published by OR Books in 2014.

Personal life

While still a teenager, Assange married a woman, also in her teens, named Teresa, and in 1989 they had a son named Daniel. The couple separated and disputed custody of Daniel until 1999.

In 2015, Assange began a relationship with Stella Moris, his South African-born lawyer. They were married on 23 March 2022 and have two sons.

Honours and awards

Works

Filmography

As himself

• The War You Don't See (2010)
• The Simpsons (2012) (cameo; episode "At Long Last Leave")
• Citizenfour (2014)
• The Yes Men Are Revolting (2014)
• Terminal F/Chasing Edward Snowden (2015)
• Asylum (2016)
• Risk (2016)
• Architects of Denial (2017)
• The New Radical (2017)
• The Fifth Estate

Images for kids

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  Demonstration in support of Assange in front of Sydney Town Hall, 10 December 2010

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  Assange speaks on the steps of St Paul's Cathedral in London, 16 October 2011.

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  Assange on the balcony of Ecuadorian embassy in London in 2012

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  Ecuadoran foreign minister Ricardo Patiño met with Assange at the Ecuadorian Embassy on 16 June 2013.

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  Demonstration outside the Ecuadorian embassy to free Assange, 16 June 2013

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  Debbie Wasserman Schultz resigned as DNC chairwoman following WikiLeaks releases suggesting bias against Bernie Sanders.

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  Rafael Correa, who was openly sympathetic to Assange, served as President of Ecuador from 2007 to 2017.

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  Stella Moris with supporters leaving the High Court in January 2022

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  The travelling art installation Anything to Say? by Davide Dormino featuring bronze sculptures of Assange, Snowden, and Manning standing on chairs in Berlin on May Day 2015

See also

In Spanish: Julian Assange para niños