Wikileaks founder Julian Assange makes last-ditch attempt to avoid U.S. extradition
A two-day hearing in a London courtroom began today over the fate of Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks. At stake is whether he will be extradited to the United States on espionage charges.
Julian Assange's Extradition Hearing Begins
A two-day hearing in a London courtroom began today over the fate of Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks. At stake is whether he will be extradited to the United States on espionage charges.
His case has reopened debate over whether Assange is a journalist and publisher or something more sinister, and many defending him say free speech and an independent press is also at stake.
This will likely be Julian Assange's last chance to avoid facing prosecutors in the United States. His two-day hearing got under way today at London's Royal Courts of Justice. Assange's lawyers are battling to block extradition, which they insist is politically motivated.
Charges Against Assange
American prosecutors want the WikiLeaks founder to stand trial on 17 charges of espionage and one charge for computer misuse for releasing huge troves of classified U.S. military and diplomatic documents back in 2010.
They say the Australian citizen conspired with U.S. army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning to steal military files and diplomatic cables. The Justice Department is also separately investigating whether Assange has ties to the Russian government, especially after WikiLeaks published internal e-mails from the Democratic Party that were stolen by the Russians during the 2016 election.
Today, Assange's wife, Stella, compared his case to that of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who died in a Russian prison last week.
Assange's Legal Troubles
Assange's legal troubles also include his arrest by British authorities in 2010 after two women in Sweden accused him of rape and sexual assault. Two years later, he jumped bail and sequestered himself at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, where he stayed around the clock for seven years.
The tiny Ecuadorian Mission eventually evicted him in 2019. And British police immediately arrested him for his bail violation years before.
He's been held in a maximum security prison in London ever since. Assange's supporters rallied outside the court today, demanding his release, and hailing him as a whistle-blower who exposed U.S. military wrongdoings in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
