WikiLeaks' Julian Assange jailed over bail breach

London, May 01: Wikileaks co-founder Julian Assange has been sentenced to 50 weeks in jail for breaching his bail conditions.

On Wednesday the WikiLeaks founder appeared in the Southwark Crown Court in south London before judge Deborah Taylor, facing up to a year's jail for breach of his bail conditions seven years ago.

"You had a choice and the course of action you chose was to commit an offense," the judge said.

"You've not surrendered willingly, you would not have come voluntarily before the court," she added, before handing down an "imprisonment of 50 weeks."

The Australian secret-spiller sought asylum in the South American country's London embassy in June 2012 to avoid extradition to Sweden, where he was wanted for questioning over rape and sexual assault allegations.

Assange fled to Ecuador's embassy in 2012 after a British judge ordered his extradition to face Swedish allegations of sexual assault and rape, which he strongly denied.

He claimed the allegations were a pretext to transfer him to the United States, where he feared prosecution over the release by WikiLeaks of millions of classified documents.

He faces a separate legal fight against a US extradition request. American authorities have charged him with conspiring to break into a Pentagon computer system.

Assange was arrested last month after Ecuador revoked his political asylum.