LONDON – Julian Assange, an Australian national who founded the whistleblowing website WikiLeaks, faces a court hearing in London on Thursday to determine whether he can be extradited to the United States to face computer hacking charges.

Assange, 47, is a controversial figure whose work supporters argue has revealed politically uncomfortable truths about the way governments and military operate, but whose critics say has endangered lives and used subversive and even criminal tactics.

He was arrested by police this month seven years after taking refuge in Ecuador's embassy in the British capital. Here's what you need to know about Assange's case.

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Where did he go?

Assange's extended self-imposed exile in Ecuador's London embassy ended on April 11 when police dragged him out and arrested him on a U.S. extradition request. He was also charged by British authorities for skipping bail in 2012 in connection with a separate, earlier extradition request by a court in Sweden that wanted him to answer allegations of sexual assault and rape. Ahead of Thursday's hearing, Assange has been held in Belmarsh prison, one of Britain's most secure facilities that is sometimes referred to as the "British version of Guantanamo Bay," the U.S. detention camp in Cuba.

What did he do?

The U.S. Department of Justice alleges that Assange broke the law when in 2010 he conspired with Chelsea Manning to reveal U.S. government secrets. It alleges that Assange, who is known for his computer hacking skills, assisted Manning, then a soldier in the U.S. Army, in cracking a password stored on U.S. Department of Defense computers. WikiLeaks subsequently published thousands of classified U.S. military and diplomatic cables and images, including video footage allegedly showing U.S. soldiers killing civilians in Iraq. Manning served nearly seven years of a 35-year sentence.

Assange sought refuge in Ecuador's embassy in 2012 after he was released on bail in Britain while facing extradition to Sweden in connection with both sets of sexual assault allegations. He feared that if he left the diplomatic compound and was extradited to Sweden he would face further onward extradition to the U.S. for the Manning hack.

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Why did he leave the embassy?

That remains a matter of dispute.

Ecuador's government claims that it "invited" British police into its embassy to arrest Assange because of a long list of transgressions by the Australian that included the smearing of his own feces on the walls of the embassy building. Ecuador’s President Lenin Moreno has called Assange a "spoiled brat" who was repeatedly disrespectful to officials charged with taking care of him at the embassy.

But Assange had been causing trouble for Ecuador in other ways. WikiLeaks publicly accused Ecuador of spying on Assange in the embassy and the whistleblowing site had also taken to highlighting an ongoing corruption probe against Moreno.

Assange's father claimed in a recent interview with Australian media that he believed his son had been "traded" by Ecuador with the U.S. in return for an International Monetary Fund loan. "Ecuador doesn’t have its own currency," Assange’s father John Shipton said in the interview published by news site news.com.au this week.

"It uses the United States dollar… You can’t get an IMF loan unless the United States approves it – upon agreement to remove Julian from the Embassy," he said.

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What happens next?

Assange's U.S. extradition hearing is scheduled to take place at Westminster Magistrates' Court in central London on Thursday at 11 a.m. local time (6 a.m. ET). However, Assange has objected to being there in person and will appear by video link.

He is also due to be sentenced at a separate court for the skipping bail conviction in connection with the Swedish case, although no date has been set for that sentence.

Extradition requests can take years.

However, complicating matters in Assange's case is that while the sexual assault and rape charges again Assange were dropped because his residence in Ecuador's embassy stymied the investigation and because the statute of limitations expired, Swedish prosecutors have indicated that they are considering a request from one of Assange's alleged victims to re-open the rape probe.

If that happens, Assange could face a competing new claim for extradition to Sweden.

"Given that Sweden's initial request for Assange was made seven years ago, it seems only fair that the UK pause and see if Sweden wants to revive that request before acting on the US request," wrote Heather Barr, who co-directs the Women’s Rights Division of Human Rights Watch, in a blog post on the organization’s website.

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