Julian Assange’s fight US extradition begins Monday in UK court

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is defined to fight for his freedom in a British court after ten years of legal drama, as he challenges American authorities’ attempt to extradite him on spying charges over the site’s publication of secret US military documents.

Lawyers for Assange and the US government are scheduled to handle off in London Monday at an extradition hearing that was delayed by the coronavirus pandemic.

American prosecutors have indicted the 49-year-old Australian on 18 espionage and computer misuse charges accumulated to a maximum sentence of 175 years. His legal representatives say the prosecution is a politically motivated abuse of power that will stifle press freedom and put journalists at risk.

Assange lawyer Jennifer Robinson said the case “is fundamentally about basic human rights and freedom of speech.”

“Journalists and whistle-blowers who reveal against the law activity by companies or governments and war crimes - including the publications Julian has been charged for - ought to be protected from prosecution,” she said.

American prosecutors say Assange is a criminal, not really a free-speech hero.

They allege that Assange conspired around army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning to hack right into a Pentagon computer and release thousands of secret diplomatic cables and military files on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. They also say he conspired with members of hacking organisations and sought to recruit hackers to provide WikiLeaks with classified information.

“By disseminating the materials within an unredacted form, he likely put people - human rights activists, journalists, advocates, religious leaders, dissidents and their families - at risk of serious harm, torture or even death,” James Lewis, a British lawyer acting for the government, told a hearing in February.

Assange argues he is a journalist entitled to First Amendment protection, and says the leaked documents exposed US military wrongdoing. Among the files released by WikiLeaks was video of a 2007 Apache helicopter attack by American forces in Baghdad that killed 11 people, including two Reuters journalists.

His lawyers argue the prosecution can be an abuse of process by a Trump administration that wants to make a good example of Assange. They say he would be held in inhuman conditions and wouldn't normally get a fair trial in america.

Journalism organisations and human rights groups have called on Britain to refuse the extradition request. Amnesty International said Assange was “the mark of a poor public campaign by US officials at the best levels.”

“If Julian Assange is prosecuted it could have a chilling effect on media freedom, leading publishers and journalists to self-censor in fear of retaliation,” said Amnesty’s Europe Director, Nils Muiznieks.

The four-week extradition hearing is part of a twisting saga rife with competing claims of hacking, spying and subterfuge. Assange’s legal professionals claim the united states intelligence services directed an exclusive security firm to spy on him while he was living in Ecuador’s London embassy - a case becoming heard in a Spanish court.

Assange also alleges he was offered a pardon by the Trump administration if he decided to say Russia wasn’t involved with leaking Democratic National Committee emails which were published by WikiLeaks through the 2016 US election campaign. The White House denies that claim.

Assange’s legal troubles started in 2010 2010, when he was arrested in London at the request of Sweden, which wished to question him about allegations of rape and sexual assault made by two women. He refused to go to Stockholm, saying he feared extradition or illegitimate rendition to the United States or the united states prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

In 2012, Assange sought refuge within the Ecuadorian Embassy, where he was beyond the reach of UK and Swedish authorities-but also effectively a prisoner, struggling to leave the tiny diplomatic mission in London’s tony Knightsbridge area.

The partnership between Assange and his hosts eventually soured, and he was evicted from the embassy in April 2019. British police immediately arrested him for jumping bail in 2012.

Sweden dropped the sex crimes investigations in November 2019 because so enough time had elapsed, but Assange remains in London’s high-security Belmarsh Prison as he awaits the extradition decision. Supporters say the ordeal has harmed Assange’s physical and mental health, leaving him with depression, dental problems and a significant shoulder ailment.

Assange’s partner Stella Moris, who had two sons with him while he lived in the embassy, said he looked thinner and was in “a whole lot of pain” when she visited him in prison in late August for the first time since March.

The extradition hearing opened in February but was put on hold when the UK went into lockdown in March to slow the spread of the coronavirus. It is resuming with social distancing measures in court and video feeds in order that journalists and observers can observe remotely.

Assange is expected to be brought by prison van from Belmarsh to the Old Bailey criminal court for the hearing, which is because of run until early October. District Judge Vanessa Baraitser will probably take weeks and even months to consider her verdict, with the losing side likely to appeal.