Year-ender: Names under the spotlight in 2019

Assange sought asylum in the Embassy of Ecuador in London since August 2012.

Swedish prosecutors reopened the investigation in April 2019 after Assange had lost diplomatic immunity and was arrested by the British authorities.

Currently, Assange is imprisoned in Britain, where he is serving 50 weeks after being convicted of violating British bail rules.

The United States has requested that he should be extradited there, where he faces 18 counts, including conspiring to hack government computers and violating an espionage law. He faces a maximum sentence of 175 years in prison if convicted of all the US charges.

The full extradition case will be heard in the week starting Feb 25, a London court ruled.