WikiLeaks expressed pessimism Wednesday on the eve of the first extradition hearing held in connection with the U.S. criminal case against the website’s publisher, Julian Assange.
Mr. Assange’s potential future abroad is slated to be discussed during court proceedings happening Thursday morning in London on the heels of him receiving a 50-week prison sentence Wednesday for breaching bail in 2012.
“Julian Assange’s sentence is as shocking as it is vindictive,” WikiLeaks reacted on Twitter.
“We have grave concerns as to whether he will receive a fair extradition hearing in the UK,” WikiLeaks tweeted.
Scheduled to be held at Westminster Magistrate Court at 10 a.m., the extradition hearing was announced after the U.S. Department of Justice unsealed an indictment last month charging Mr. Assange, an Australian, with one count of conspiracy to commit computer hacking.
Mr. Assange, 47, stands accused of attempting in 2010 to help a WikiLeaks source bypass security measures meant to protect data stored on Department of Defense computer systems. He has been charged by prosecutors in Alexandria, Virginia, and he currently faces a maximum sentence of five years behind bars if found guilty if the single count.
The Justice Department has 60 days from requesting extradition to make its argument for taking custody of Mr. Assange, but prosecutors are poised to potentially add to their case before that window expires — the government has admittedly investigated WikiLeaks for nearly a decade, and the website’s unauthorized disclosure of internal Democratic National Committee emails and CIA hacking tools are near the heart of separate criminal investigations initiated following their release in 2016 and 2017, respectively.
Indeed, the U.S. attorney prosecuting the hacking case in Alexandria said last month that certain details involving the government’s case against Mr. Assange should “remain under seal because it contains nonpublic information about an ongoing criminal investigation.”
The Justice Department declined to comment when asked to respond to the WikiLeaks tweet.
Sweden first publicly sought Mr. Assange’s extradition in 2011 to question him over allegations of sexual assault stemming from a visit he made to Stockholm the previous year. He was subsequently placed under house arrest by British police pending extradition prior to seeking refuge inside the Ecuadorian Embassy in London in 2012, and he ultimately lived on the property as a political asylee for nearly seven years until having that status revoked weeks ago on April 11 and being promptly arrested by British police.
Mr. Assange was convicted shortly after his eviction from the embassy last month of having jumped bail by entering the building while under house arrest. Judge Deborah Taylor of the Southwark Crown Court said Wednesday that it was a “deliberate attempt to delay justice” and sentenced him Wednesday to 50 weeks behind bars — two weeks shy of the one-year maximum allowed by law.
Separate from the case in Alexandria, prosecutors in D.C. have charged several Russian military officers with hacking Democratic targets to obtain material later published by WikiLeaks during the 2016 U.S. presidential race. Joshua Schulte, a former CIA engineer, has been charged in Manhattan in connection with allegedly leaking hack tools to the website, meanwhile. Moscow and Mr. Schulte have both denied the allegations.
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.