Julian Assange, who was announced on Monday to be in a plea deal with US authorities that will see him go free, is for some a fearless campaigner for press freedom. But for others, the 52-year-old Australian was reckless with classified information, possibly endangering human sources. Assange is the figurehead of the whistleblowing website that exposed government secrets worldwide, notably the explosive leak of US military files related to wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
He has spent more than a decade either in custody or holed up in Ecuador's London embassy, trying to avoid extradition -- first to Sweden to answer allegations of rape, and then to the United States. Born in Townsville, Queensland, in 1971, Assange had a peripatetic childhood and claims to have attended 37 schools before settling in Melbourne. As a teenager, he discovered a talent for computer hacking, which brought him to the attention of the Australian police, but he admitted most of the charges levelled against him, for which he paid a fine.
Assange launched WikiLeaks in 2006 with like-minded activists and IT experts. "We are creating a new standard for a free press," Assange told AFP in August 2010. - Embassy asylum - His legal battles began the same year, soon after he published revelations from classified documents about US military campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Rape allegations in Sweden then followed, which he denied. He was in Britain when Sweden sought his extradition. Ecuador granted him politic.
