Assange to face extradition hearing in 2020

Assange to face extradition hearing in 2020

PanARMENIAN.Net - A British court has set a date early next year for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to face a U.S. extradition attempt over his role in revealing classified government and military information, ABC reports.

Ben Brandon, a British lawyer representing the US Government, told a court hearing on Friday, June 14 that the case "related to one of the largest compromises of confidential information in the history of the United States".

US officials are seeking to prosecute Assange under the Espionage Act, blaming him for directing WikiLeaks' publication of a huge trove of secret documents that disclosed the names of people who provided confidential information to American and coalition forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Judge Emma Arbuthnot set a full extradition hearing for February 25, 2020. It is expected to last about five days.

Assange asserts that he is a journalist with First Amendment protections and is fighting the extradition attempt.

He was too ill to attend a recent hearing and appeared at Friday's hearing at Westminster Magistrates' Court by video link from prison, during which he was quoted as saying "175 years of my life is effectively at stake".

"It is important that people aren't fooled into believing that WikiLeaks is anything but a publisher," Assange said.

Assange also complained that he has not yet received the full US indictment against him because his lawyers are not allowed to give him documents and can only send him papers through the mail.

Judge Arbuthnot said the paperwork only arrived Thursday and that "no one" has had a chance to fully read it.

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