British justice decided Monday to postpone the next stage of the examination of the request for extradition of the founder of WikiLeaks Julian Assange towards the United States, which is likely not to take place before November. After a first week of hearings in February, the British courts had suspended this examination until May 18. At a procedural hearing on Monday, judge Vanessa Baraitser acceded to the request by the defense of Julian Assange to have more time to prepare and postponed the date of the resumption.
A new date will be set at a hearing on May 4. But the judge warned that the hearing could not be held before November, failing to have a three-week window necessary for the trial before that date.
Julian Assange detained in a prison near London
Julian Assange is being prosecuted in the United States for having disseminated from 2010 more than 700,000 classified documents on American military and diplomatic activities, notably in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Australian, who did not attend Monday's hearing, remains detained at Belmarsh High Security Prison, near London. "There have always been great difficulties in reaching Julian Assange," argued his lawyer Edward Fitzgerald. "With the coronavirus epidemic, it is not possible to prepare this file," added the lawyer, claiming that he had not had "direct access" to his client for "more than a month".
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The United States criticizes the founder of WikiLeaks for endangering sources of American services. For their part, Assange's lawyers denounce a political procedure based on "lies". Julian Assange was arrested in April 2019 after seven years in solitary confinement at the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where he had taken refuge after violating the conditions of his bail, fearing extradition to the United States.
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Julian Assange had two sons with his lawyer when he was at the Embassy of Ecuador
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Doctors and journalists support Julian Assange
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