Julian Assange sentenced to 50 weeks in British prison

Wikileaks co-founder Julian Assange has been sentenced on Wednesday to 50 weeks in a British prison for breaching his bail by entering the Ecuadorian embassy in London.

The 47-year-old was arrested last month after spending seven years holed up in the Ecuadoran embassy and was found guilty of breaching the UK's Bail Act.

Assange, who took refuge in the embassy in 2012 to avoid extradition to Sweden on rape accusations, was arrested after Ecuador terminated his asylum on 11th of last month. The Australian national now faces US



federal conspiracy charges related to one of the largest leaks of government secrets. 

The UK will decide whether to extradite Assange to the US in response to allegations that he conspired with former US intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning to download classified databases. He faces up to five years in a US prison if convicted.

The whistle-blowing website Wikileaks has published thousands of classified documents covering everything from the film industry to national security and war.