“We are surprised by the timing chosen to do so, to say the least”, attorney Mark Summers said during an administrative hearing on Monday at the Westminster Magistrates Court.
Last week, the US Justice Department expanded the scope of the conspiracy crime Assange is being accused of, also charging him with recruiting hackers, encouraging other people to search classified information, and conspiring to access a computer in the US Ministry of Defense.
Although the new accusations do not represent any additional charge to the 18 already filed against the Australian journalist, Summers believes they could «derail» the date set for the resumption of the extradition trial.
The founder of Wikileaks was detained by Scotland Yard on April 11th, 2019 at the Ecuador embassy in London, after the Ecuadorian government withdrew the political asylum it had granted Assange seven years ago.
After being sentenced to 50 weeks in prison for violating a bail granted in 2012 by British justice, in connection with an accusation for alleged sexual crimes that was later dismissed by Sweden, Judge Baraitser determined that Assange, 48, must wait in prison the result of the extradition trial.
If handed over to the United States, the cyber activist could be sentenced to 175 years in prison, based on the 18 charges against him, which range from conspiracy to commit espionage to hacking, and are related to the publication of hundreds of thousands of secret files on US diplomacy and the Army on the Wikileaks portal.
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