He Skipped Bail 7 Years Ago. Now, Assange Hears His Fate

Raising a fist in the air as he arrived, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange entered a London courtroom Wednesday to find out his fate for skipping bail in 2012 to avoid getting extradited to Sweden over rape allegations, reports Al Jazeera. That fate: nearly a year in jail. The 50-week sentence was handed down in what the BBC says was a "packed" Southwark Crown Court, in which Assange read from a letter that noted he'd been "struggling with difficult circumstances" and had done "what I thought at the time was the best or perhaps the only thing that I could have done." On Thursday, Assange—who was arrested last month at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London after Ecuador yanked back his asylum—is set to appear at a second hearing concerning extradition to the US over a hacking conspiracy charge. (More Julian Assange stories.)