WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was arrested on Thursday in London. He is charged with conspiracy in the United States.
Washington - WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange could face five years in prison on charges of conspiracy to infiltrate the government computer system unveiled on Thursday by the US Justice Department after the arrest of the activist in London.
"Assange has been charged with conspiracy to commit an invasion of computer systems. He faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison if convicted, "the Justice Department said in a statement.
The United States considers that Assange collaborated with former Chelsea soldier Manning, who in 2010 leaked over 700,000 classified documents to WikiLeaks to try to decipher access passwords from government computers with which he could access information and hamper identification.
The relationship between Assange and Chelsea, who at the time worked as an intelligence analyst for the US Department of Defense under the name of Bradley Manning, had been known for years, but it was believed that the Australian activist had only been a filler of the information sent by the military.
