WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange would face a secret, closed-door trial if he were extradited from Britain for sex-crime allegations in Sweden, his defense attorney argued in court on Monday.

In the first of what's expected to be a two-day extradition hearing, defense attorney Geoffrey Robertson argued that Assange's right to "open justice" would be denied if he were to be tried in Sweden where rape trials are often closed to the press and public at the court's discretion.

“You cannot have a fair trial when the press and public are excluded from the court, and the Swedish custom is to exclude them," Robertson told district judge Howard Riddle, according to Bloomberg. Robertson also argued that Assange would likely be denied bail if sent to Sweden, and that he would be held incommunicado "to soften him up for his interrogation."

Defense witness Brita Sundberg-Weitman, a retired Swedish judge, also said in testimony that the legal proceedings against Assange in Sweden were biased and “extremely peculiar.”

She said the attitude toward Assange was “rather hostile,” and that most people in Sweden already "take it for granted that he has raped two women." She also said that Marianne Ny, the Swedish prosecutor in the case, is “biased” against men accused of sexual crimes.

“She is so preoccupied with battered women and raped women that she has lost balance,” Sundberg-Weitman said.

Robertson reiterated previous defense claims that an international arrest warrant issued by Swedish authorities was invalid, noting that Assange has not been charged with a crime, and arguing that the allegations against him do not meet the legal standard for rape held by the U.K. or other European countries. Assange is wanted for questioning in relation to allegations made by two Swedish women who slept with Assange last year during a speaking engagement in Sweden. One of the women alleges that Assange purposely tore a condom he wore during sex with her. The second woman alleges that Assange had sex with her while she slept and that he did so without wearing a condom, despite her previous insistence that he wear one.

As the hearing got underway, Assange's defense team posted 42 documents online that outline the arguments and testimony they intend to present in court. Among them are claims that the Swedish government is acting on behalf of the U.S. to extradite Assange to Sweden so that he could be further extradited to the U.S. to face criminal charges related to WikiLeaks' publication of thousands of documents from the Afghan and Iraq wars as well as U.S. diplomatic cables.

But UK prosecutor Clare Montgomery, who was in court representing Swedish authorities, said that there was no proof that the U.S. would in fact bring charges against Assange and that if the U.S. requested extradition of Assange from Sweden, UK authorities would have to consent.