WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been jailed for 50 weeks at Southwark Crown Court for a bail breach offense in London.
He appeared in a London court on Wednesday to be sentenced for breaking bail to enter the Ecuadorean embassy seven years ago.
Assange was arrested on April 11 after Ecuador gave him up, will serve the nearly one-year sentence while fighting a separate attempt to transfer him to the United States.
Appearing before Southwark Crown Court, Assange confirmed his name and sipped water from a plastic cup.
The 47-year-old, his shaggy beard neatly trimmed, raised his fist to supporters in the public gallery at London’s Southwark Crown Court as he was taken down to the cells.
He was convicted last month of skipping bail in 2012 after an extradition order to Sweden over an allegation of rape. The maximum sentence is a year in jail.
"I apologies unreservedly to those who consider I have disrespected them by the way I have pursued my case," Assange said in a letter that was read to the court by his lawyer, Mark Summers.
"I found myself struggling with terrifying circumstances. I did at the time what I thought was best."
Summers told the court that Assange had “strongly held fears” in 2012 that he would be sent from Sweden to the United States and ultimately to the Guantanamo Bay detention center in Cuba.
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