Julian Assange’s appeal hearing canceled

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange's appeal hearing has been canceled, court officials said Thursday. The hearing, to appeal his 50-week prison sentence for breaching bail in the UK in 2012, was scheduled for July 23. Multiple British media outlets reported that Assange is “no longer pursuing the appeal,” but that has yet to be confirmed by his lawyer.

The journalist spent nearly seven years in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, having sought asylum over fears – later confirmed – that he would be arrested and extradited to the US over the 2010 publication of State Department and Pentagon documents. After his asylum was withdrawn in April, Assange was dragged out of the embassy by British police, sentenced to nearly a year behind bars, and sent to the maximum-security Belmarsh prison in south London.