Julian Assange hearing: Liveblog

This past year, WikiLeaks is accredited for the biggest military and diplomatic leak in US history. Soon after WikiLeaks gained favor in the eyes of promoters of freedom of the press advocates and notoriety with governments worldwide, the organization’s founder, Julian Assange, was accused of sexual assault in Sweden and was brought in to custody by the UK. Today is the procedural hearings for Assange, with the main case hearing being held on this February 7.

Below is our narration of the events as they unfold.

8:30 Belmarsh Court

Reporters waiting for the procedural hearings for Julian Assange

11:15 Case Hearing

The procedural case for the potential extradition of Julian Assange has begun. Geoff Robertson, who represents Assange’s defense, introduced the hearing and stated that he was confident the hearing would run in a “swimming” manner. According to the prosecutor, she claimed that she did not have enough information from defence, and additionally received potentially critical information this morning which she did not had the time to read. The court thus has ruled the defense must provide the required evidence by February 15. The hearing ended quickly, with the Judge adjourning the hearing until February 7.

11:58: Our reporter’s tweets

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12:19 The Current Predicament for Assange and WikiLeaks

This past year WikiLeaks has been busy making enemies with governments worldwide. The organization is known for releasing the largest military and diplomatic leak in US history, with the latest including the diplomatic files. Thus when Julian Assange was accused of sexual assault by two of WikiLeaks volunteers, the politicizing of the event was unavoidable.

According to the Guardian, two different women accused him of unprotected and nonconsensual sex. Assange claims that while he did have sexual relations with these women, he asserts that it was consensual. These two incidences took place in Sweden, and thus the government have requested to have Assange extradited from the UK to be tried under Swedish courts.

Assange speaking to journalists

Today there was a plethora of reporters at the court scene to witness the preliminary hearing of Assange. Whatever the tone what of the hearing, it was obviously a very short one. The hearing lasted a few minutes, and a small two to three minute press conference was held afterward. According to Assange, he stated that the work of WikiLeaks “continues unabated” and is “stepping up our publishing for matters related to Cablegate.”

12:34 Protesters Outside the Belmarsh Court

Protesters show their support for WikiLeaks and Julian Assange

To supporters of WikiLeaks, the Assange extradition case and the promotion of freedom of information may not be distinctly different battles. Protesters showed up today to continue to express their admiration for the cause of WikiLeaks and to fight government censorship.

13:24 Assange’s case against extradition

Julian Assange’s lawyers have released their skeleton arguments online. In general, they argue against the extradition based on seven points. The document restates that Ms. Nye (who remained anonymous until now) has not decided to prosecute Assange yet, only wanted to bring him back to Sweden for questioning. Yet Assange has offered to be questioned through other means besides returning to Sweden, which have been dismissed by Ms. Nye. Yet the European Arrest Warrant (EAW) should only be issued for cases that will be prosecuted, and thus there was a breach in the process of extradition.

“If any criminal court at any time has cause to suspect that a prosecutor may be manipulating or using the procedures of the court in order to oppress or unfairly to prejudice a defendant before the court, I have no doubt that it is the duty of the court to inquire into the situation and ensure that its procedure is not being abused. Usually no doubt such inquiry will be prompted by a complaint on the part of the defendant. But the duty of the court in my view exists even in the absence of a complaint.”

Assange made a statement after his case today that he was concerned about being extradited to the US as a result of being forced into the custody of Sweden. Alexi Mostrous tweets “Finally, #Assange says US extradition would leave him at ‘real risk’ of being ‘detained at Guantanamo’ and ‘made subject to death penalty.’”

16:06 Mistake in releasing names of the two women in Assange case

Conference room used during the review hearings for Assange earlier today

According to journalist Ravi Somaiya, Assange’s lawyers were not supposed to release the names of the women accusers in the legal documents, which the lawyers admitted was an oversight. The fallout of these careless mistakes may not play so well with Swedish prosecutors, who asserted that the release of this confidential information is a crime. Anyone else seeing a theme of Assange and the release of classified information?

18:10 Video of a Protester

Protesters overall were quite today, although it appears that there were a few who were there to adamantly support WikiLeaks and Assange. Check out the following video of one of the more vocal protesters, who is fighting for the release of the person indicated to be responsible for the leaked information, Brad Manning.

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Photo Credits: Flickr CC a.powers-fudyma