Wikileaks founder Julian Assange should not be extradited to America for ‘political offences’, his extradition hearing heard today.
Assange, 48, faces accusations of leaking sensitive military material between January and May 2010.
The Americans want to extradite him so he can be tried for conspiring with army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning for leaking classified documents.
Assange, 48, pictured after his arrest in April, faces accusations of leaking sensitive military material between January and May 2010
Assange appeared at Westminster Magistrates’ Court today via video-link from maximum-security Belmarsh Prison in southeast London.
Speaking at the hearing, the activist’s lawyer argued his offences were ‘political’ so were not sufficient to merit his extradition.
Edward Fitzgerald QC, acting for Assange, said: ‘We say, that there is within the treaty a ban on being extradited for a political offence, and these offence as framed, and indeed in substance, are political.
‘There is a bundle with the revelations in the Spanish proceedings in regards to the ongoing evidence of the bugging of the conversations with his lawyers in the Ecuadorian embassy.’
Assange’s full extradition hearing will be heard at Belmarsh Magistrates’ Court on February 24 next year and will last up to four weeks with evidence from 21 witnesses.
District Judge Vanessa Baraitser said she understood the UK government was keen for proceedings not to be delayed and for the matter to be resolved within the allotted time.
There will be a brief administrative hearing back at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on 18 January.
On December 13, it emerged in court that Mr Assange was yet to be shown key evidence in the case brought against him by the American authorities.
Gareth Peirce, representing Assange, said at that hearing: ‘The summary case which we have prepared is a dense document.
‘Mr Assange has not been given what he must be given, and we are keen to go through this to the best of our abilities to keep with the requests of the court. It is predicated on the underlying evidence that Mr Assange has not reviewed.’
It comes weeks after more than 60 doctors warned in an open letter addressed to Home Secretary Priti Patel that he could die in prison without urgent medical care.
The medics, from the UK, Australia, Europe and Sri Lanka, expressed ‘serious concerns’ about Assange’s fitness to stand trial.
The Americans want to extradite him so he can be tried for conspiring with army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning for leaking classified documents. Ms Manning is pictured at a protest outside a US court on May 16
Assange was jailed for 50 weeks in May for breaching his bail conditions after going into hiding in the Ecuadorian embassy in London to avoid extradition to Sweden over sex offence allegations, which he has always denied.
Last month, WikiLeaks welcomed a decision by the Swedish authorities to drop a rape investigation.
Assange has been in custody since he was dramatically removed from the embassy building in April, and at a hearing in October appeared to struggle to say his own name, telling Westminster Magistrates’ Court: ‘I can’t think properly.’
Recently, Assange’s close friend Pamela Anderson claimed she was threatened by a prison warden at Belmarsh.
Anderson said that towards the end of her meeting with Assange at Belmarsh high security prison in London in May the warden ‘stormed in’.
She said: ‘The warden stormed in and made it very clear to me, that if I were going to be a problem – he’d make problems for Julian. It was a direct threat.’
It was unclear why the warden, who is known as the prison governor in the UK, might have believed Anderson was going to cause trouble.
Julian Assange pictured as he is led out of the Ecuadorian Embassy in London in handcuffs following his sensational arrest by British police earlier this year
A UK Prison Service spokesman said: ‘The Governor of HMP Belmarsh did not threaten Ms Anderson or Mr Assange.’
On November 25, Home Secretary Priti Patel received a letter from medics across the world which stated Assange ‘could die’ at Belmarsh if he didn’t receive ‘urgent medical care’.
The medics – from the UK, Australia, Europe and Sri Lanka – express ‘serious concerns’ about the 48-year-old’s health.
The doctors are calling for Assange to be transferred to a university teaching hospital, where he can be assessed and treated by an expert medical team.
The letter, which has also been copied to shadow home secretary Diane Abbott, says: ‘From a medical point of view, on the evidence currently available, we have serious concerns about Mr Assange’s fitness to stand trial in February 2020.
‘Most importantly, it is our opinion that Mr Assange requires urgent expert medical assessment of both his physical and psychological state of health.
‘Any medical treatment indicated should be administered in a properly equipped and expertly staffed university teaching hospital (tertiary care).
‘Were such urgent assessment and treatment not to take place, we have real concerns, on the evidence currently available, that Mr Assange could die in prison.
‘The medical situation is thereby urgent. There is no time to lose.’
The snap taken before Assange was thrown in prison shows the close relationship the pair share amid rumours there are romantically linked
Dr Lissa Johnson, a clinical psychologist in Australia and one of the letter’s signatories, said: ‘Given the rapid decline of his health in Belmarsh prison, Julian Assange must immediately be transferred to a university teaching hospital for appropriate and specialised medical care.
‘If the UK Government fails to heed doctors’ advice by urgently arranging such a transfer on medical grounds, there is a very real possibility that Mr Assange may die.
‘As it stands, serious questions surround not only the health impacts of Mr Assange’s detention conditions, but his medical fitness to stand trial and prepare his defence.
‘Independent specialist medical assessment is therefore needed to determine whether Julian Assange is medically fit for any of his pending legal proceedings.
‘Consistent with its commitment to human rights and rule of law, the UK Government must heed the urgent warning of medical professionals from around the world, and transfer Julian Assange to an appropriately specialised and expert hospital setting, before it’s too late.’