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WikiLeaks founder Assange needs more time to speak to lawyer, court told


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WikiLeaks founder Assange needs more time to speak to lawyer, court told

By Elizabeth Howcroft

 

2020-01-13T215302Z_1_LYNXMPEG0C1SL_RTROPTP_3_BRITAIN-ASSANGE.JPG

WikiLeaks' founder Julian Assange leaves Westminster Magistrates Court in London, Britain January 13, 2020. REUTERS/Henry Nicholls

 

LONDON (Reuters) - WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is not getting the time he needs with his legal team to discuss his fight against extradition to the United States, causing delays to the case, his lawyer told a British court on Monday.

 

After skipping bail in Britain, Assange spent seven years holed up in Ecuador's embassy in London before he was dragged out by police in April last year.

 

He is being held in a British jail pending the U.S. extradition case, having served a sentence for skipping bail.

 

The United States wants him extradited to face 18 charges including conspiring to hack government computers and violating an espionage law. He could spend decades in prison if convicted.

 

The 48-year-old Australian appeared for Monday's hearing at Westminster Magistrates Court wearing glasses and a dark blazer over a light top. He spoke only to confirm his name and date of birth to the judge and saluted his supporters in the public gallery at the beginning and end of the hearing.

 

Assange's lawyer Gareth Peirce said difficulty in getting time with Assange had delayed the case, telling the court: "This slippage in the timetable is extremely worrying."

 

He fled to Ecuador's embassy in 2012 to avoid being sent to Sweden to face sex crimes accusations that were dropped last year.

He says the U.S. charges against him are a political attempt to silence journalists and publishers, and that the Swedish allegations were part of a plot to catch him.

 

Assange made global headlines in early 2010 when WikiLeaks published a classified U.S. military video showing a 2007 attack by Apache helicopters in Baghdad that killed a dozen people, including two Reuters news staff.

 

Judge Vanessa Baraitser said Assange could have time on Monday to speak to his lawyer and appear in court again later in the day. In that second sitting, Peirce said that she had only had an hour to speak to Assange.

 

Assange's next hearing is scheduled for Jan. 23. He is due to appear via video link from London's Belmarsh prison.

 

Full extradition proceedings are expected to commence in February.

 

(Reporting by Elizabeth Howcroft; Writing by Alistair Smout; Editing by Catherine Evans and Philippa Fletcher)

 

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-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-01-14
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1 hour ago, Baerboxer said:

 

Or even better, free him. Just because he told the truth.

 

1 hour ago, Baerboxer said:

 

Why? He did nothing wrong except exposing the truth others preferred to hide.

And that did not include any classified information? It´s illegal to expose that kind of info. So, wasn´t he doing something illegal?

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19 hours ago, rhyddid said:

Julian Assange is one of the few Real Journalist, who made no mistake, indeed he is paying to have exposed the true, even if he knew he was going to pay dearly.

Julian Assange is a real Hero, US indeed prove once again the "false democracy" status and the UK court and judge to be just a mere puppet of US, as there is no ground to detain him and Julian Assange shall fight the extradition charges as free man, since he did not commit any crime in UK !

He is a show boater.  Assange has done nothing himself, he just feeds off of those dissatisfied who give him information

 

He no more of a journalist than are Thai Visa posters   

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