Julian Assange was stripped naked, handcuffed: Lawyer
LONDON: A lawyer for Julian Assange complained on Tuesday that the WikiLeaks founder was handcuffed 11 times, stripped naked twice and had court papers taken away on the opening day of a court hearing on his extradition to the US.
Attorney Edward Fitzgerald told a judge that the treatment of Assange at London’s Belmarsh Prison “could be a contempt of this court”. The extradition hearing opened on Monday at Woolwich Crown Court, which is located next to the prison.
District Judge Vanessa Baraitser said she had no power to act unless Assange became unable to participate in the proceedings, which are expected to last several months. “If it comes to that, let me know,” the judge said.
Assange is wanted in the US on espionage charges over the leaking of classified government documents a decade ago.
US prosecutors accuse Assange of conspiring with US Army intelligwence analyst Chelsea Manning to crack a password, hack into a Pentagon computer and release hundreds of thousands of secret diplomatic cables and military files on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Assange says he was acting as a journalist entitled to First Amendment protection. His lawyers argue that the US charges which carry a maximum sentence of 175 years in prison - are a politically motivated abuse of power.
Assange’s lawyer also said that he had tried to contact Hillary Clinton and the White House when he realised that unredacted US diplomatic cables given to WikiLeaks were about to be dumped on the internet.
On Monday, the lawyer representing the US told the hearing that Assange, 48, was wanted for crimes that had endangered people in Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan who had helped the West.