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Law360, London (April 24, 2020, 4:38 PM BST ) Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder fighting extradition to the U.S. on espionage and computer misuse charges, will apply to postpone the case at a London court Monday because the coronavirus pandemic has restricted his access to his legal team.
Lawyers for Assange will argue at Westminster Magistrates' Court that they "have not had full and unfettered access to their client" ahead of the extradition hearing that is due to resume in May, his representatives said Friday.
"The onset of the coronavirus crisis has reduced that already restricted access to unacceptably low levels," the statement said, adding that Assange is unable to appear even by video link because on medical grounds, using the video link room in the prison where he is being held is "too great a risk."
The 48-year-old Australian national is being held at Belmarsh prison in southeast London while awaiting potential extradition to the U.S. on 17 charges of violating espionage law and one count of computer misuse that his lawyers claim could see him sentenced to 175 years in a U.S. prison.
Prosecution lawyers acting on behalf of the U.S. government have agreed that the remainder of the hearing should be postponed, Assange's representatives said.
"It is quite clear that this hearing cannot go ahead in just a few weeks' time," said Joseph Farrell, WikiLeaks ambassador. "Julian's lawyers cannot prepare adequately, witnesses will not be able to travel, and journalists and the public will not have free, adequate and safe access to the proceedings. Justice will neither be done, nor seen to be done."
Assange is wanted in the U.S. over allegations that he published hundreds of thousands of classified documents covering U.S. conduct in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and U.S. Department of State cables and files containing assessments of detainees at Guantanamo Bay.
He is accused of encouraging leaks by former U.S. Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning and of conspiring to hack into the U.S. Department of Defense computer system, in what the U.S. government insists is one of the largest compromises of classified information in U.S. history.
At a preliminary extradition hearing at Woolwich Crown Court in February, U.S. prosecutors alleged that Assange "knowingly endangered" U.S. informants in Iraq and Afghanistan when WikiLeaks published a cache of 250,000 unredacted secret diplomatic cables online in 2011.
Assange's defense attorney described the case as being built on "lies, lies and more lies" at the hearing, claiming the request to extradite Assange "boldly and brazenly" misrepresented the facts.
The full hearing resumes May 18 and is expected to last three weeks.
Assange was denied bail by a district judge in March after his lawyers had argued he should be granted bail because he was vulnerable to contracting the coronavirus in prison.
The case is U.S. v. Assange, case number 1900802699, in Westminster Magistrates Court.
--Editing by Marygrace Murphy.
For a reprint of this article, please contact reprints@law360.com.
