Assange To Stay In Prison Until Extradition Hearing Over 'Absconding' Concerns

Assange to Stay in Prison Until Extradition Hearing Over 'Absconding' Concerns

Westminster Magistrates' Court in London ruled on Friday that the founder of whistleblowing website WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, will remain in prison until the extradition hearing in February over fears related to his "absconding history

LONDON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 13th September, 2019) Westminster Magistrates' Court in London ruled on Friday that the founder of whistleblowing website WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, will remain in prison until the extradition hearing in February over fears related to his "absconding history."

Assange was arrested in London on April 11 and thereafter sentenced to 50 weeks in prison for jumping bail back in 2012, when he claimed asylum in the Ecuadorian embassy in London to avoid being extradited to Sweden over sexual assault charges and possibly being sent to the United States. After Assange's arrest, Washington filed a request asking London to extradite him. Hearings on Assange's extradition case are now scheduled for February 25, 2020. The whistleblower was due to be released on September 22 after having served half his term.

"You have been produced today because your sentence of imprisonment is about to come to an end. When that happens your remand status changes from a serving prisoner to a person facing extradition. Therefore I have given your lawyer an opportunity to make an application for bail on your behalf and she has declined to do so. Perhaps, not surprisingly in light of your history of absconding in these proceedings, In my view, I have substantial ground for believing if I release you, you will abscond again," Vanessa Baraitser, the judge, said.

US authorities are striving to obtain Assange's extradition to the United States, where he is wanted for the 2010 leaks of classified government data and has already been indicted on 18 charges bearing an up to 175-year prison term. In Sweden, Assange will face the reopened rape case against him.