⁍ U.S. authorities accuse Julian Assange of conspiring to hack government computers.
⁍ They also accuse him of violating an espionage law in connection with the release of confidential cables.
⁍ Assange’s lawyers argue that the charges are politically motivated.
– A British judge will deliver her verdict on Jan. 4 on whether WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange should be extradited to the US to face espionage charges, Reuters reports. Assange’s lawyers argue that the charges are politically motivated, that his mental health is at risk, that conditions in US prisons breach Britain’s human rights laws, and that he and his lawyers were spied on while he was in the Ecuadorian embassy. The legal team representing the US has countered that many of those arguments are issues which should be addressed in a trial, and have no bearing on extradition.
Source: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-britain-assange/uk-judge-to-give-assanges-us-extradition-verdict-early-next-year-idUSKBN26M6QK