Julian Assange: UK police drop 24-hour embassy guard

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange

Julian Assange, founder of the website WikiLeaks, has been a key figure in major leaks of classified government documents, cables and videos since his site launched in 2006.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange

Assange holds a copy of The Guardian newspaper in London on July 26, 2010, a day after WikiLeaks posted more than 90,000 classified documents related to the Afghanistan War.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange

Assange attends a seminar at the Swedish Trade Union Confederation in Stockholm on August 14, 2010. Six days later, Swedish prosecutors issued a warrant for his arrest based on allegations of sexual assault from two women.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange

Assange displays a page from WikiLeaks on October 23, 2010, in London. WikiLeaks released approximately 400,000 classified military documents from the Iraq War the day before.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange

Assange and his bodyguards are seen after a news conference in Geneva, Switzerland, on November 4, 2010. It was the month WikiLeaks began releasing diplomatic cables from U.S. embassies.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange

Assange sits behind the tinted window of a police vehicle at Westminster Magistrates court in London on December 14, 2010. Assange had turned himself in to London authorities on December 7 and was released on bail and put on house arrest on December 16.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange

Assange supporters stand outside Belmarsh Magistrates Court in London on February 24, 2011, as a judge ruled in favor of Assange's extradition to Sweden.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange

Copies of the "unauthorized autobiography" of Assange sit on display in a bookstore in Edinburgh, Scotland, on September 22, 2011. Earlier that month, WikiLeaks released more than 250,000 U.S. diplomatic cables.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange

Assange speaks to demonstrators from the steps of St. Paul's Cathedral in London on October 15, 2011.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange

Two police officers stand guard outside the Ecuadorian Embassy in London on June 20, 2012, after Assange took refuge there to avoid arrest and extradition by British police. Ecuador granted him asylum in August 2012.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange

Assange speaks from a window of the Ecuadorian Embassy in London on December 20, 2012. Facing arrest by British officials, Assange has not set foot outside the embassy since June 2012.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange

Assange appears with Ecuadorian Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino on the balcony of the embassy on June 16, 2013.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange

Benedict Cumberbatch stars as Assange in the film "The Fifth Estate." Assange refused to meet the actor, stating: "I believe you are well-intentioned, but surely you can see why it is a bad idea for me to meet with you. By meeting with you, I would validate this wretched film, and endorse the talented, but debauched, performance that the script will force you to give."

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange

Assange speaks during a panel discussion at the South By Southwest Festival in Austin, Texas, in March 2014.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange

Assange attends a news conference inside the Ecuadorian Embassy in London in August.

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Julian Assange: UK police drop 24-hour embassy guard