AceShowbiz - WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange has been sentenced to 50 weeks in jail for skipping bail by holing up in the Ecuadorean embassy in London.

In November 2010, Swedish officials issued an arrest warrant for Assange in relation to allegations of sexual assault and rape - accusations he has denied.

British authorities subsequently arrested him and after breaching his bail he was granted asylum by Ecuador in August 2012. He remained at the embassy until he was arrested there last month (April 2019) after the offer of asylum was rescinded.

Sentencing him to 50 weeks in jail, just under the maximum allowable in English law, at Crown Court in London on Wednesday, May 01, Judge Deborah Taylor said: "It is difficult to envisage a more serious example of this offence. The maximum sentence for this offence is 12 months. You do not have the benefit of a plea of guilty. You have made a written apology today, the first recognition that you regret you actions. In my judgment, the seriousness of your offence, having taken into account the mitigation merits a sentence near the maximum. The sentence is imprisonment for 50 weeks."

She called his actions a "deliberate attempt to evade or delay justice" and rejected his suggestion that they were justified by his fear of being extradited to the U.S. to face charges relating to his role in publishing secret American documents. Assange faces an extradition hearing on Thursday.

Swedish prosecutors dropped their investigation into the Australia-born computer whiz in May 2017, citing their inability to interview him as required by their laws.

Following his arrest, Assange was backed by his close friend Pamela Anderson, who called his treatment "devastating" and "disgusting".