WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange faces sentencing over bail-jumping

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is set to be sentenced for jumping British bail seven years ago and holing up in the Ecuadorian embassy.

Assange faces a maximum sentence of a year in prison when he is sentenced Wednesday at London’s Southwark Crown Court.

A judge at an earlier hearing said the 47-year-old hacker’s offense “merits the maximum sentence.”

The Australian secret-spiller sought asylum in the South American country’s London embassy in June 2012 to avoid extradition to Sweden, where he was wanted for questioning over rape and sexual assault allegations.

He faces a separate legal fight against a US extradition request. American authorities have charged him with conspiring to break into a Pentagon computer system.

Assange was arrested last month after Ecuador revoked his political asylum.