Events are taking place around the world as Julian Assange marks the beginning of his fifth year living in the Ecuadorian embassy in London on 19 June. Assange first entered the embassy on 18 June 2012 and has not left the premises since.

The Australian anti-secrecy activist attended the Ecuadorian embassy to escape extradition to Sweden where he is wanted for questioning over rape allegations. Assange fears that Sweden could then extradite him to the US, where he could face prison for the release of classified military files through the site he founded, Wikileaks.

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Events to mark the date are taking place between 19 - 25 June in cities around the world. They will be addressed by Assange from the embassy and a number of high-profile supporters, including Vivienne Westwood, Noam Chomsky, Michael Moore, Yanis Varoufakis, Ai Wei Wei and PJ Harvey.

According to The Guardian, Assange's lawyers said he is angry that he is still facing a European Arrest Warrant (EAW). An EAW allows police in an EU member state to arrest an individual on behalf of another state and transfer them, without requiring extradition proceedings.

Assange recently backed the UK leaving the EU in the upcoming referendum, citing the EAW as one reason, as well as saying that the current government uses the EU "as political cover for its own decision making".

Assange lives in a 4.6mx4m room in the embassy. The newspaper said he spends most of his day at his computer and got a cat for company in May.

Swedish prosecutors dropped three of four sex crime accusations against Assange last year. The remaining allegation relating to rape has a statue of limitations that runs out in 2020.

Earlier this year, the United Nations' Working Group on Arbitrary Detention gave the opinion that Assange was being unlawfully detained and recommended that he be granted his freedom. Both the UK and Sweden dispute the group's findings.

Julian Assange WikiLeaks