UK Judge Threatens to Have Assange Removed From Courtroom for Interrupting Witness

LONDON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 08th September, 2020) The UK judge presiding over the extradition hearing of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to the United States warned the whistleblower that he will be removed from the courtroom if the interrupts proceedings again.

"I understand that during the course of these proceedings you will hear many things that you disagree with, however if you disrupt a witness, it is open to me to proceed in your absence," Judge Vanessa Baraitser told Assange.

Although his outburst could not be heard by journalists following the extradition hearing via video link, Juan Passarelli, a WikiLeaks supporter who is the courtroom, tweeted that he shouted "this is a nonsense" when the prosecutor told the witness that the whistleblower is not being prosecuted by the US for the publication of classified information, but for revealing Names of informants in Iraq and Afghanistan, and putting their lives at risk.

The US Department of Justice is seeking to extradite the WikiLeaks founder on 18 espionage and computer misuse charges, which carries a sentence as long as 175 years in prison.

The hearing to decide whether Assange should be sent to the United States resumed on Monday at the London Central Criminal Court, after six months of delay due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The WikiLeaks founder, who has been locked at the maximum-security prison of Belmarsh since his arrest at the Ecuadoran embassy in London in April 2019, is attending the trial from behind a glass panel, away from his defense team.

The hearing is expected to last at least three weeks, and it is highly probable that the verdict will be appealed by the losing side.