Spy according to some, freedom of speech fighter according to others. He has been accused of rape in Sweden, threatened with deportation to the USA, and spent seven years locked up in Ecuador's embassy. Now he is a free man.
Here are all the twists and turns surrounding Julian Assange.
2006: Julian Assange, born 1971 in Australian Townsville, co-founds Wikileaks. On the organisation's site, anonymous sources can upload material.
2010: Wikileaks publishes hundreds of thousands of secret military and diplomatic documents about, among other things, the USA's war in Iraq and Afghanistan, revealing American war crimes and human rights violations.
Among the organisation's most notable revelations is a secret video recording, filmed by the USA's military, showing how an American Apache helicopter in 2007 attacks and kills at least twelve people, including two Reuters journalists, in Baghdad.
August-December 2010: Julian Assange is arrested and detained in absentia, suspected of sexual offences against two women during a visit to Sweden. The Australian, who is in the UK, surrenders to British police and is fitted with an electronic tag.
May-June 2012: The UK decides that Julian Assange should be extradited to Sweden. He barricades himself in Ecuador's embassy in London, where he will spend the next seven years. During his time at the embassy, he has two children with lawyer Stella Moris, whom he later marries.
May 2017: The Swedish investigation against Assange is dropped.
April 2019: Wikileaks founder is arrested at Ecuador's embassy by British police. The USA announces an indictment for espionage and data intrusion against Assange and demands his immediate extradition.
Assange's lawyers dismiss the American accusations as politically motivated and a threat to press freedom. His supporters see him as a freedom of speech fighter, while critics believe that the extensive publication of secret documents has endangered the USA's security.
May 2019: Assange is sentenced to nearly a year in prison by a court in London for breaching the country's bail regulations. The Swedish investigation is reopened.
November 2019: The Swedish investigation against Julian Assange is dropped again.
2019-2024: A lengthy legal process regarding a possible extradition to the USA continues, with a series of appeals from both sides. Julian Assange is held in British prison while awaiting a decision, since a court has ruled that there is a high risk that he will flee if released.
Several times, doctors warn that Assange's health is so poor that he risks dying in British prison.
June 2024: Julian Assange becomes a free man after admitting to spreading confidential information and reaching an agreement with the USA's Justice Department.
After being released from British prison, he is flown via Bangkok to the American Pacific territory of the Northern Mariana Islands, where he appears in court. Assange is sentenced to five years and two months in prison, which corresponds to the time he has already spent in prison in the UK.
He is then flown home to Australia, where his wife Stella Assange and their two children are waiting.
