Mr. Julian Assange was indicted in 2019 on 17 counts of violating the Espionage Act of U.S.A for obtaining and publishing secret military and diplomatic documents. He was charged with violating the Computers Fraud and Abuse Act in the U.S. The publication of the material exposed wrongdoing by the United States in Iraq and Afghanistan, and rights groups have hailed their release as valuable information for the public. Mr. Assange’s promotion of government transparency has made him a hero to many, but he has also been criticized as a publicity seeker with an erratic personality. On the other hand, the U.S. government considers Mr. Assange an individual who has put lives at risk by revealing names of U.S. personnel and informants who provided valuable information in dangerous places like war zones. In 2012, Mr. Assange entered the Ecuadorean Embassy in London to escape an extradition request from Sweden, where he faced rape accusations. He spent seven years in the embassy, but was arrested by the British police in 2019, and later sentenced to 50 weeks in prison for skipping bail when he entered the embassy. The charges in Sweden have been dropped, and Mr. Assange has completed his 50-week sentence. He is not accused of any crime outside the United States, but he remains at the Belmarsh prison in London while Britain decides on his extradition. His bail requests have so far been rejected. Several doctors have said that Mr. Assange suffers from depression and memory loss and could attempt to kill himself if he were extradited. Personal liberty still eludes WikiLeaks founder and Editor-in-Chief Julian Assange, despite a ruling by a United Nations legal panel that has declared his confinement “arbitrary and illegal”. Analyse ethical issues involved in the above case. Should Mr Julian Assange be pardoned? State your opinion. 10 marks