Bid to send Assange to U.S. on hold
For now, it’s a WikiWait.
A British court on Friday set a February 2020 date for Julian Assange’s extradition hearing to determine if the U.S. gets a crack at the hacker on a number of charges.
The WikiLeaks founder, who is serving almost a year’s worth of prison time in Britain for jumping bail, faces espionage charges in the U.S. regarding his alleged role in conspiring to hack into a Pentagon computer in 2010.
The U.S. formally made its extradition request for Assange last week, and Sajid Javid, the British home secretary, said he signed the request on Wednesday.
“We’ve got a legitimate extension request so I’ve signed it,” Javid told BBC Radio 4’s “Today.” “But the final decision is now with the courts.”
Assange, who had previously missed a hearing when his lawyer said he was too sick to appear, was beamed into the Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Friday via video.
The 47-year-old told the London court he is a journalist who deserves First Amendment protection, and addressing his potential sentence, said, “175 years of my life is effectively at stake.”
Assange spent seven years holed up at the Ecuadoran embassy in London until the Ecuadoran government revoked his political asylum and allowed police to arrest him in April.
Swedish prosecutors also sought to extradite Assange over a rape allegation, but a Swedish court on June 3 denied a request for Assange to be detained. Assange denies the rape accusation, which Swedish prosecutors said they would continue to investigate.