LONDON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 07th September, 2020) The legal defense team of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange asked the judge presiding over the extradition hearing that resumed on Monday at the London Central Criminal Court to exclude fresh allegations from the new extradition request filed by the United States against the Wikileaks founder.
"What's happening here is abnormal, fundamentally unfair, and liable to create real injustice if allowed to continue," lawyer Mark Summers told the court, arguing that it is unfair to bring a new extradition request six weeks before the hearing resumes.
According to Summers, the superseding indictment presented by the US prosecution in July does not just add "narrative details" to the 18 espionage and computer misuse charges the US Department of Justice has brought against his client.
Although no new charges have indeed been added, the US is now accusing the whistleblower of conspiring with US army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning to access a Department of Defense computer containing secret diplomatic cables and military information on the US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The new indictment also claims that Assange asked renowned international hackers to provide WikiLeaks with classified information.
Just before adjourning the hearing for lunch, district judge Vanessa Baraitser denied Summers� petition and said she had offered Assange's legal team the opportunity to request a delay of the trial and have more time to prepare.
Due to the presentation of the superseding indictment, Assange had to be formally re-arrested at the beginning of the hearing.
During the afternoon session, the first witness will be called.
The hearing to decide whether Assange should be extradited to the United States, where he could face a maximum sentence of 175 years in prison, resumed on Monday after six months of delay due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Wikileaks founder, who was brought into court from the maximum-security prison of Belmarsh, where he has been confined since his arrest at the Ecuadoran embassy in London in April 2019, is sitting behind a glass panel, away from his defense team, and only appeared on the video streaming to identified himself at the judge�s request.
When asked if consent to his extradition to the United States, he only said "No."
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.
As happened in the previous hearing, dozens of Assange supporters have gathered on Monday outside the courthouse in Old Bailey street to demand his release.
