UK court sets Assange extradition hearing for 2020

A London court has set February 2020 as the date for hearing. Wikileaks founder Julian Assange is currently serving 50 weeks imprisonment sentence in UK's Belmarsh prison for skipping bail to avoid being sent to Sweden over sexual assault allegations.

London:Wikileaks founder Julian Assange's extradition hearing is set for February 2020. Assange faces charges of violating the Espionage Act and also conspiring to lay its hands on classified government documents.

Through a video link, he appeared for hearing and defended himself as well as the website against allegations of hacking.

The 47-year-old Assange faces an 18-count indictment issued by the US Justice Department last month. The US prosecutors had initially charged Assange with a single count of computer intrusion, but later added 17 new counts, including controversial charges under the Espionage Act for encouraging, receiving and publishing national defence information in concert with former Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning.

The hearing came a day after Britain's Home Secretary Sajid Javid signed the extradition request sent by the US Justice Department.

"Mr Assange was arrested in relation to a provisional extradition request from the United States of America. He is accused of offences including computer misuse and the unauthorised disclosure of national defence information," Javid said after signing the extradition request.

Assange is currently serving 50 weeks imprisonment sentence in UK's Belmarsh prison for skipping bail to avoid being sent to Sweden over sexual assault allegations. The Australian whistleblower has denied the allegations against him, asserting that they were politically motivated.