The US has charged Julian Assange with violating the Espionage Act.
The WikiLeaks is accused of receiving and publishing classified information.
The charges are contained in an 18-count indictment announced today by the US Justice Department.
They go far beyond an initial indictment against Assange made public last month that accused him of conspiring with former Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning in a conspiracy to crack a Defence Department computer password.
The new indictment says Assange conspired with Manning to obtain and disclose classified national defence documents, including State Department cables and reports on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
It says his actions ‘risked serious harm’ to the United States.
Assange, 47, is in prison in London after being evicted from the Ecuadorian Embassy in April. The US is seeking his extradition.
He was dramatically dragged from the Ecuadorian embassy in Knightsbridge, central London, last month, some seven years after he sought political asylum after the documents were published.
He was then jailed for 50 weeks for a bail breach and is fighting against extradition to the US.
US authorities allege the whistleblower conspired with Manning, 31, ‘with reason to believe that the information was to be used to the injury of the United States or the advantage of a foreign nation’.
Assange published the documents on WikiLeaks with unredacted names of sources who gave information to US forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.
He faces a maximum of 10 years in prison for each count except conspiracy to commit computer intrusion, which is punishable by five years.
WikiLeaks editor-in-chief Kristinn Hrafnsson said in a tweet: ‘I find no satisfaction in saying ‘I told you so’ to those who for 9 years have scorned us for warning this moment would come.
“I care for journalism. If you share my feeling you take a stand NOW. Either you are a worthless coward or you defend Assange, WikiLeaks and Journalism.’
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