As the controversial Julian Assange faces the High Court, this may be his last chance to avoid extradition to the US where he could be the first person to ever be convicted under The Espionage Act.
Last month, the UK High Court confirmed that his public hearing would take place on 20 and 21 February.
If extradited, Assange, 52, faces a sentence of 175 years.
The Wikileaks founder has been held in HMP Belmarsh in London since April 2019, after being forcibly removed from Ecuador’s embassy when his seven-year diplomatic asylum was revoked.
As his trial goes on, MailOnline documents Julian Assange’s main WikiLeaks revelations – particularly the video that brought WikiLeaks into the spotlight.
WikiLeaks’ founder Julian Assange leaves Westminster Magistrates Court in London, Britain January 13, 2020
The video that made WIkileaks’ name shows footage of US Apache helicopters opening fire in Baghdad, Iraq.
In 2010, WikiLeaks released the footage in a 39-minute video titled Collateral Murder.
It was first released during a press conference on April 5 in the US National Press Club and WikiLeaks claimed that the footage showed the ‘murder of Iraqi civilians and two Reuters journalists’.
They also claimed that the source was ‘a number of military whistleblowers’.
The video showed the air-to-ground strikes take place by two US military helicopters in Al-Amin al-Thaniyah, New Baghdad, following the US’ invasion of Iraq, during the Iraq insurgency.
A crew fired on a group of civilians and killed several, casualties including two Reuters journalists, Iraqis Saeed Chmagh and Namir Noor-Eldeen, before laughing and mocking them.
A second strike was directed at a van who was driven by Saleh Matasher Tomal, a man who was helping the wounded Chmagh. The two men were killed and two of Tomal’s children were seriously injured.
Pictures from the footage of airstrikes in Iraq by the US Army. In 2010, WikiLeaks released footage in a 39-minute video titled Collateral Murder
Pictured above is the late Namir Noor-Eldeen, an Iraqi war photojournalist who was killed by the US Army during the Iraq insurgency following their invasion of Iraq
The third and final strike saw the US pilots watch people approach a building before attacking the site with AGM-114 Hellfire missiles.
Throughout the video, casualties included journalists and children, leading to between approximately 12-18 civilian deaths.
US chat show host Stephen Colbert accused Assange of editorialising by titling the video Collateral Murder – an accusation Assange agreed with.
In the years that followed the group ublished a series of leaks provided by US Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning.
The leaks included a total of 75,000 documents relating to the war in Afghanistan and approximately 390,000 army field reports relating to the Iraq war.
In 2011, Assange published the Guantanamo Files after receiving intel from Manning, a year after she leaked war logs from Afghanistan and Iraq.
The 779 secret documents detailed the treatment of prisoners held captive in the Cuban military prison.
They included classified assessments and interviews written by the Pentagon’s Joint Task Force Guantanamo.
The confidential documents were clearly marked as ‘secret’ and also labelled NOFORN – not releasable to foreign nationals.
An army soldier stands at the entrance to Camp Delta where detainees from the U.S. war in Afghanistan live, on April 7, 2004 in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba
The documents, which were thought to have been released by Manning in 2010 revealed the harsh conditions that detainees were allegedly put through, and also alleged that many were wrongfully convicted.
Manning was jailed for 35 years for leaking the files before Barack Obama cut her sentence in 2017 and freed her.
WikiLeaks also exposed members of the BNP and sensitive details in 2009 – the British National Party.
This included members’ phone numbers and addresses in addition to their names.
Thousands of names were included and the source and then-chairman of BNP Nick Griffin claimed the anonymous source who leaked the information was a former senior employee.
Members included police officers, religious leaders, doctors, and teachers. British Police officers are prohibited from joining the BNP and at least one officer was expelled from the force as a result of the leak.
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Read more at DailyMail.co.uk