Who is Julian Assange and what secrets is he accused of leaking?

Seven years ago, Julian Assange stood outside the Ecuadorian embassy and greeted his supporters with a fist in the air - he couldn’t have thought a prolonged legal battle against extradition to the US would have continued until this week.

The 52-year-old Australian was at the embassy in London seeking asylum as Swedish authorities wanted to speak to him over a rape allegation which was later dropped.

He feared that leaving the UK would lead to him being sent to the US where he was soon to be charged with conspiring to hack into military databases to acquire sensitive information following the publication of files on WikiLeaks.

But now the US appears unless he is successful in against the taking place at the Royal Courts of Justice this week.