WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was arrested by British police on Thursday after Ecuador withdrew the asylum that had allowed him to take refuge in its embassy in London for the past seven years.

The computer hacker now faces the prospect of extradition to the United States. He was also found guilty in a British court on Thursday of breaking bail terms dating back to 2012.

Who is Julian Assange?

The 47-year-old, born in Townsville, founded WikiLeaks, an organisation that that publishes secret information and news leaks, in 2006. His initial recruitment invitation reportedly said his “primary targets are those highly oppressive regimes in China, Russia and Central Eurasia, but we also expect to be of assistance to those in the West who wish to reveal illegal or immoral behaviour in their own governments and corporations”.

Wikileaks did indeed proceed to publish secret official information – a lot. This including hundreds of thousands of diplomatic cables, infuriating the United States and other countries.

Wikileaks has now published more than 10 million documents and pieces of analysis, it says on its website, quoting Assange describing it as “a giant library of the world's most persecuted documents. We give asylum to these documents, we analyze them, we promote them and we obtain more.”

Assange's supporters see him as a hero who challenges censorship and champions free speech. Others say he risked security by revealing secret documents.

Why was he in Ecuador's embassy in London?

Back in November 2011, London's High Court said Assange should be extradited to Sweden for questioning over alleged sex crimes after accusations by two former WikiLeaks volunteers in 2010.

After losing an appeal, Assange took refuge in Ecuador's embassy in June 2012 to avoid being extradited. He was granted political asylum by the anti-American, left-wing former Ecuadorean president Rafael Correa.

Fearing the United States wanted to prosecute him, Assange remained in the embassy after Sweden dropped the investigation against him in 2017.

Sweden's then-chief prosecutor, Marianne Ny, said in 2017 that the Swedish probe could be reopened should the situation change.

Why did Ecuador change its mind about Assange?

In 2017 elections, Correa was replaced as Ecuadorean president by Lenin Moreno who has since moved Ecuador's foreign policy to a more US-friendly stance. He has been openly critical of Assange in recent months, calling him an inherited problem and accusing him of violating the rules of his asylum.

What secrets did Wikileaks reveal?

In July 2010, WikiLeaks released more than 91,000 documents, most of them secret US military reports about the war in Afghanistan. In October of that year, it released another 400,000 classified military files chronicling the war in Iraq from 2004 to 2009.

What charges does Assange face in the United States?

After years of speculation that Assange was a wanted man in the US, prosecutors there announced charges against him following his arrest on Thursday, accusing him of conspiring with former Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning to gain access to a government computer. Assange, for now at least, faces a single count of computer intrusion conspiracy.

The charges relate to Assange allegedly conspiring with Manning to crack a password that would give her higher-level access to classified computer networks.

Prosecutors say Assange and Manning tried to conceal Manning's role as a source by deleting chat logs and removing usernames from sensitive records that were shared. They used a special folder to transmit classified and national defence information, the indictment says. Assange ultimately requested more information related to the password, telling Manning that while he had tried to crack it, he "had no luck so far".

Assange's arrest has paved the way for his possible extradition to the United States. Assange would face up to five years in prison on the US charge.

Who is Chelsea Manning?

Now aged 31 and known as an activist and whistleblower, Manning was Private First Class Bradley Manning when she worked as an intelligence analyst at Forward Operating Base Hammer near Baghdad.

Manning had been browsing two classified networks used by the US Department of Defense and the State Department and found material he found “incredible, awful” that he thought needed to be made public. He smuggled files out on writeable CDs labelled Lady Gaga.

He later confessed to passing vast archives of military and diplomatic files to WikiLeaks, saying he wanted to “spark a debate about foreign policy” and believed the world would be a better place if states did not make secret deals with each other. The former solider, who has since announced that she is transgender and changed her name from Bradley to Chelsea, spent seven years in jail for the leaks. She was jailed again in March for contempt of court after she refused to testify before a grand jury in Virginia.

What has Ecuador said since the arrest?

Ecuador's Moreno said the South American country had complied with its duties to Assange under international law and he accused Wikileaks of repeatedly violating the rules of his asylum, including a provision which was meant to stop him intervening in the internal matters of other countries.

A leak of Vatican documents in 2019 was the most recent example of Assange violating that policy, Moreno said in a video posted on Twitter.

"I requested Great Britain to guarantee that Mr Assange would not be extradited to a country where he could face torture or the death penalty," Moreno said. "The British government has confirmed it in writing, in accordance with its own rules."

What has the United Kingdom said since the arrest?

"I am sure that the whole House will welcome the news this morning that the Metropolitan Police have arrested Julian Assange," Prime Minister Theresa May told parliament.

"This goes to show that in the United Kingdom no one is above the law."

Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said it was right that Assange's fate should be decided in the British judicial system.

"Julian Assange is no hero. He has hidden from the truth for years and years," Hunt told Sky News.

Junior foreign minister Alan Duncan thanked Ecuador for paving the way for Assange's arrest by withdrawing his asylum after "extensive dialogue" between London and Quito.

What do Assange's supporters say?

Assange's lawyer Jennifer Robinson said the arrest set a "dangerous precedent" for the media. "This precedent means that any journalist can be extradited for prosecution in the United States for having published truthful information about the United States," she said.

What happens next?

Assange is expected to fight extradition to the US, a process that could stretch out for years.

He has a top-notch legal team, many devoted supporters and the legal issues in the US case may prove complex.

Assuming he is eventually brought to the States, he would face charges in the Eastern District of Virginia, just outside Washington. The office has considerable experience in national security prosecutions involving accused terrorists and spies and other high-profile matters, such as the case against former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort.

Justice Department officials could easily supplement their indictment with a new one with more serious charges. Manning's jailing last month suggests that prosecutors' work related to Assange is not done.

Reuters, AAP with Nick Miller