The Justice Department has formalized its extradition request for wanted WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange, U.K. and U.K. officials confirmed Tuesday.
A department spokesperson told The Washington Times that the U.S. submitted its request to the U.K. government for the extradition of Mr. Assange ahead of a deadline this week to do so.
“We have now received the full extradition request,” confirmed a spokesperson for the U.K. Home Office.
Mr. Assange, 47, was arrested by British police in London on April 11 in relation to a provisional extradition request from the U.S., starting a 65-day window for the Justice Department to make it case for taking custody of the Australian-born WikiLeaks founder.
Federal prosecutors have subsequently unsealed indictments charging Mr. Assange with a total of 18 felony counts, including mostly violations of the U.S. Espionage Act related to his alleged solicitation and publication of classified military and diplomatic material.
Representatives for WikiLeaks did not immediately return a request for comment.
The Justice Department has charged Mr. Assange in connection with material provided to WikiLeaks by former Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning and published online in 2010, including classified documents originating from the Departments of Defense and State. He is the first person to be prosecuted for publishing under the Espionage Act since its creation more than a century earlier.
Manning, 31, served seven years in military prison for convictions related to her WikiLeaks disclosures prior to having most of her sentence commuted by former President Barack Obama in early 2017. She was recently found in contempt for refusing to cooperate with federal prosecutors pursuing charges against Mr. Assange and remanded behind bars, however.
Mr. Assange was accused of sexual assault in late 2010, and he was under house arrest when he entered the Ecuadorian Embassy seeking protection in June 2012. He was granted asylum within weeks and ultimately lived on the property for roughly seven years prior to being evicted in April and immediately arrested by British police.
He is currently jailed at the high-security Belmarsh prison, where he is serving a 50-week sentence for breaching bail by entering the embassy.
Among the material provided by Manning to WikiLeaks for publication are hundreds of thousands of State Department cables containing diplomatic communications and detailed accounts of U.S. military campaigns abroad, including video footage of a 2007 airstrike in Iraq that claimed the lives of several civilians and journalists.
“I do not wish to surrender myself for extradition for doing journalism that has won many awards and protected many people,” Mr. Assange said during a court hearing last month.
“The Department takes seriously the role of journalists in our democracy and we thank you for it,” U.S. Attorney General for National Security John C. Demers previously said when the Justice Department announced charged against the WikiLeaks publisher. “Julian Assange is no journalist.”
Mr. Assange’s next extradition hearing is scheduled for this Friday in London.
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
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