[ad_1]
The judges must decide whether the 49-year-old Australian will be extradited to the United States. There Assange is charged with the publication of classified documents and violations of the anti-espionage law. If convicted, he faces up to 175 years in prison.
He is currently in a maximum security prison in the UK. The hearing at London’s Central Criminal Court is expected to last three to four weeks. Procedures were originally supposed to continue in April, but had to be interrupted due to the corona pandemic.
The trial, no matter how it turns out, will “almost certainly” be challenged by the other side, said John Rees, representative of a campaign supporting Assange, told the AFP news agency. The Australian has “a very strong defense”, but the case has been “very politicized”.
At a hearing in February, Assange’s attorney, Edward Fitzgerald, argued that his client did not expect a fair trial in the United States. In addition, the founder of Wikileaks is at risk of suicide in case of extradition.
Assange’s lawyers have repeatedly tried unsuccessfully to get their client released on bail. Supporters of the Wikileaks founder fear for the 49-year-old man’s health. Assange appeared confused and weakened when he appeared in court in February.
Assange’s partner and mother of his two children, attorney Stella Morris, also pressed for his release in March, warning that his life was also in jail over the spread of the coronavirus.
Assange has several prominent supporters behind him, including fashion designer Vivienne Westwood and former “Baywatch” star Pamela Anderson. The Council of Europe also ruled in February against the extradition of the Wikileaks founder, referring to the “deterrent effect on press freedom” it would have.
In 2010 and 2011, the Wikileaks disclosure platform posted hundreds of thousands of secret documents on the Internet, mainly about the Iraq war, which had been leaked by former US soldier Chelsea Manning. They contained highly explosive information on US operations in the country, including the murder of civilians and the mistreatment of prisoners.
Assange was arrested in the UK in April 2019 after spending seven years at the Ecuadorian embassy in London. He had sought refuge there for fear of being extradited to the United States.
