* BREACH OF BAIL IN BRITAIN

Assange, who was on bail after losing an action to prevent his extradition to Sweden, is facing up to 12 months in jail for breaching his UK bail conditions when he sought asylum in the Ecuadorian embassy in London in 2012.

The British criminal action against Assange takes precedence over the US extradition proceedings, which are already under way. The US government has until June 12 to outline its case against Assange.

It is uncertain whether the US case will take precedence over Sweden if it decides to apply to extradite Assange.

* COMPUTER INTRUSION IN THE US

The US wants Assange for one of the largest compromises of classified information in its history. US prosecutors have charged him with computer intrusion for conspiring with former Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning to gain access to a government computer.

The indictment, filed in March 2018 and unsealed on April 11, says Assange in March 2010 engaged in a conspiracy to help Manning crack a password stored on Defence Department computers connected to the Secret Internet Protocol Network (SIPRNet), a US government network used for classified documents and communications.

Manning, formerly Bradley Manning, was jailed on March 8 after being held in contempt by a judge for refusing to testify before a grand jury in what is widely believed to be related to the Assange investigation.

Manning was convicted by court-martial in 2013 of espionage and other offences for furnishing more than 700,000 documents, videos, diplomatic cables and battlefield accounts to WikiLeaks while she was an intelligence analyst in Iraq. Former US president Barack Obama commuted the final 28 years of Manning's 35-year sentence.

* POSSIBLE RAPE CHARGE IN SWEDEN

Assange was accused by two Swedish women of sexual assault and rape in 2010. After opening an initial investigation, prosecutors dropped it, only to reopen it and issue a European arrest order for Assange, who had left the country for Britain.

Assange, who denied the allegations, fought through the courts to get an extradition order and the preliminary investigation dropped, fearing that should he go to Sweden, authorities could hand him over to the US.

Prosecutors ended the preliminary investigation into allegations of sexual molestation and unlawful coercion in 2015 as the statute of limitations had already passed, but kept open the rape probe.

In May 2017, then chief prosecutor Marianne Ny dropped the preliminary investigation into rape without filing any charges, saying there was no prospect of Assange being handed over within a reasonable time frame.

Swedish prosecutors said on April 11 they had received a formal request to reopen the rape investigation from the alleged victim's lawyer. The statute of limitation for rape is 10 years, a deadline which would be reached in mid-August next year.

Australian Associated Press