Wikileaks founder Julian Assange is due at Belmarsh Magistrates’ Court in London for a hearing to determine if he should be extradited to the United States to answer charges related to the 2010 leak of hundreds of thousands of secret documents related to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Assange’s lawyers have branded the extradition case as “an outrageous and full-frontal assault on journalistic rights.”

Assange is accused of working with former U.S. army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning in a coordinated effort to compromise U.S. government computer networks, and obtain and publish classified documents related to national security.

National Public Radio reports that Assange and his supporters maintain that prosecution for his involvement in leaks of government material criminalize newsgathering, and should be of concern to journalists.

Judge Sets Julian Assange Extradition Hearing For February (NPR Jun 2019)

Julian Assange extradition case 'outrageous assault on journalism' (BBC Jun 2019)

Date written/update: 2019-07-14