The Westminster court sets the hearing to authorize the extradition of Assange to the US for April 20

MADRID, 2 Apr. (EUROPE PRESS) –

The UK’s Westminster Magistrate’s Court has set a hearing for April 20 to authorize the extradition of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to the United States, where he is accused of espionage and could face up to 175 years in prison. for the publication of classified official documents.

“The Westminster Magistrate’s Court has set the hearing to issue the extradition order for Julian Assange to the United States for Wednesday, April 20,” WikiLeaks itself explained in a message posted on Twitter.

“The order will then go to (British Home Secretary Priti) Patel for approval. Assange’s defense will be able to present allegations to Patel” until May 18, the organization added.

On March 14, the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom dismissed Assange’s request to appeal his extradition, effectively exhausting the judicial process.

The WikiLeaks founder was a refugee in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London between 2012 and 2019 to avoid being initially extradited to Sweden, where an investigation was pending for alleged sexual crimes, finally dismissed. In the United States he faces 17 counts of espionage and an additional count of hacking.

The case is unprecedented in the United States under the original law, the Espionage Act of 1917. Many scholars believe that the law, which has never been used to prosecute a journalist until now, raises troubling constitutional issues because it infringes on the rights of the First Amendment to receive and publish information.