Julian Assange has been given a sentence of 50 weeks at Southwark Crown Court for failing to surrender to bail after the UK Supreme Court ruled in favour of an extradition request from Sweden. He had been found guilty at Westminster Magistrates Court after being removed from the Ecuadorean embassy in London.
His case was referred to the Crown Court for sentencing as, although the maximum sentence for the offence is 12 months imprisonment, magistrates courts can only give a maximum of 6 months. He isssued an apology letter in an attempt to get the sentence miitigated (well it worked, 2 weeks off!!)
I apologise unreservedly to those who consider that I have disrespected them by the way I have pursued my case.
This is not what I wanted or intended.
I found myself struggling with terrifying circumstances for which neither I nor those from whom I sought advice could work out any remedy.
I did what I thought at the time was the best and perhaps the only thing that could be done - which I hoped might lead to a legal resolution being reached between Ecuador and Sweden that would protect me from the worst of my fears.
I regret the course that this took; the difficulties were instead compounded and impacted upon very many others.
Whilst the difficulties I now face may have become even greater, nevertheless it is right for me to say this now.
I would like to remind any remaining sympathic to Assange that among those “disrespected” were a group of erstwhile friends and supporters who lost £200,000 when they put up sureities for his bail and had to surrender it when he skipped.
The normal procedure is for a convicted prisoner to serve half their sentence before being released “on licence” for the remainder however they are also subject to a further period of supervision in the community to bring this up to a year after release. So theoretically Assange will be eligible for release at the start of October however there is an outstanding Extradition Warrant to Sweden that the authorities there may wish to activate.
There is also an extradition request from the USA which must be finalised before it is first fully considered on June 2 back at Westminster Magistrates Court. Then all the charges he faces in the USA must be listed rather than the original one which looks like a “holding charge”. Going by the time it took to appeal the Swedish warrant and even if it were expedited by the British courts, it is highly unlikely that appeals would be completed before October this year or even April 2020.