Wikileaks founder Julian Assange found guilty of breaking bail conditions as US reveals hacking charges for ‘Chelsea Manning conspiracy’
Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has been found guilty of breaching his 2012 bail order at Westminster Magistrates Court this afternoon, it is reported.
It means he faces a prison sentence of up to 12 months, the Press Association said.
Read more: Assange arrested on US extradition request at Ecuadorian embassy
Assange had reportedly pleaded not guilty, with a defence of “reasonable excuse”.
He has spent the previous seven years seeking refuge at the Ecuadorian embassy.
Assange also risks five years in a US prison as authorities this afternoon charged him with conspiracy to hack into US government computers.
Assange is accused of conspiring with intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning in 2010 to crack a password for the Department of Defense’s Secret Internet Protocol Network (SIPRNet).
The network, which is used to store classified information, gave Manning access to thousands of documents and communications which she passed on to the Wikileaks founder.
Today’s charges allege that Manning and Assange were in contact during the conspiracy and that Assange actively encouraged Manning to send him more information.
During an exchange, Manning allegedly told Assange that “after this upload, that’s all I really have got left.” To which Assange is said to have replied: “Curious eyes never run dry in my experience.”
The files leaked by Manning included startling revelations about the behaviour of US troops, including a video from the cockpit of an Apache helicopter, showing it gunning down a dozen people, including two Reuters journalists.
In that incident, two children were wounded. “It’s their fault for bringing their kids into a battle,” one of the US troops can be heard saying in the video.
Manning was convicted in 2013 on espionage charges for passing on 70,000 documents, videos and diplomatic cables to Wikileaks. She was released from prison after a pardon from President Barack Obama and is reportedly now eyeing a run for the US Senate.
Assange was arrested this morning at the Ecuadorian embassy where he has spent seven years trying to avoid UK authorities.
Metropolitan police officers entered the embassy and were filmed taking him outside and into a vehicle.
The Met later confirmed it was arrested him for breaching a bail order issued in 2012, as well as on behalf of the US authorities for a planned extradition.
Ecuadorian president Lenin Moreno said the country had taken the "sovereign decision" to remove asylum for Assange.
Read more: Assange's legal team say expulsion from Ecuador embassy would be 'illegal'
"The discourteous and aggressive behaviour of Mr Assange, the hostile and threatening declarations of its allied organisation, against Ecuador, and especially, the transgression of international treaties, have led the situation to a point where the asylum of Mr Assange is unsustainable and no longer viable," he said.
Reuters later reported that Ecuador has suspended Assange's citizenship as well as accusing him and Wikileaks of working to destabilise its government.
Private photographs of Moreno and his family taken years ago while living in Europe recently circulated on social media, with the Ecuadorian government pointing the finger at Wikileaks.