AssangeDAO is an organization formed by cyberpunks that was created to collect money to fight the legal battle for Julian Assange. The Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) first started a Telegram group on December 10th, 2021. Julian Assange is the founder of Wikileaks and according to his lawyers; he had published some truthful information.
Assange has been imprisoned since April 11, 2019, in a jail in the United Kingdom. His asylum status was denied and the US wants to extradite him. If he is extradited to the US, then he might have to spend 175 years in prison. It basically means that he will be in prison till his death. There are 18 charges which the US Government has pressed against Assange.
The High Court in London has given permission to Assgne’s lawyers to appeal the December 2021 extradition ruling. Hence now the AssangeDAO movement is collecting money to pay for his legal fees and increasing public awareness against this injustice.
Why was Julian Assange imprisoned?
Assange was charged with conspiracy to commit computer intrusion. He was trying to hack the Government server to help renowned American activist and whistleblower Chelsea Manning. He was also charged for 17 other charges under the Espionage Act of 1917 on May 23, 2019.
As per the US law, there is a sentence of 170 years if proven guilty under the Espionage Act. There will be another 5 years of sentence for trying to hack the Government computer.
The $53 million support
The DAO won a bid to purchase an NFT for 16,593 ether which is valued at about $53 million. There were more than 10, 000 contributors for this movement who donated generously. The contributors contributed about $53.7 million through 17, 422 ether (ETH).
