WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was sentenced Wednesday to 50 weeks in a British prison for jumping bail in 2012.
Assange next faces an extradition hearing on Thursday related to a separate and potentially more consequential charge in the United States of conspiring to crack a government password. Legal experts anticipate the extradition fight could take years.
Assange, 47, appeared at Southwark Crown Court in London wearing a black jacket and gray sweater, the bushy white beard seen during his arrest last month now neatly trimmed. He answered the judge in a quiet voice from behind a glass wall in a bland courtroom packed with journalists taking notes.
The Australian citizen had faced up to a year in a British prison for his bail violation — the maximum penalty for such an offense. He broke his bail conditions in 2012 when he fled to the Ecuadoran Embassy in London after Sweden requested his extradition in an investigation involving sexual assault allegations, including rape. Assange has denied those accusations.
