LONDON – The London hearing on the extradition of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange from Britain to the United States was suspended on Thursday because one of the lawyers may have been exposed to the coronavirus.
District Judge Vanessa Baraitser ordered the trial adjourned until Monday, while a lawyer representing the U. S. government is tested for the virus.
Assange is fighting U. S. prosecutors to have the British government send him to the United States for trial on espionage charges.
US prosecutors have charged the 49-year-old Australian with paying 18 spying and computer misuse fees for the publication of secret US military documents by WikiLeaks a decade ago. The fees carry a sentence of 175 years in prison.
Assange’s lawyers say the lawsuit is an abuse of force for political reasons that will suppress press freedom and endanger journalists around the world.
The hearing began Monday at the Old Bailey Criminal Court in London and is expected to last about a month.
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