Assange too ill for video appearance at extradition hearing, lawyer says

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was too ill on Thursday to appear via video for a hearing on an extradition request from the United States, Reuters reported.

His lawyer said that Assange, who is currently serving a 50-week sentence in a London prison for skipping bail in 2012, is very sick.

“He’s in fact far from well,” Gareth Peirce, told Reuters.

{mosads}WikiLeaks said Wednesday that it has grave concerns about Assange’s health and that he has been moved to a health ward at Belmarsh high-security prison.

“During the seven weeks in Belmarsh his health has continued to deteriorate and he has dramatically lost weight,” it added in a statement. “The decision of prison authorities to move him to the health ward speaks for itself.”

WikiLeaks has grave concerns about the state of health of our publisher, Julian Assange, who has been moved to the health ward of Belmarsh prison. – See full statement: pic.twitter.com/HnZVks4kWj

— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) May 29, 2019

The next hearing on the extradition request was set for June 12, per Reuters.

Assange, who had been living in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London since 2012 to avoid extradition to the U.S. and Sweden, faces a slew of charges in America.

Charges were first filed against Assange for allegedly conspiring to hack into computers in connection with the organization’s release of classified government cables from Chelsea Manning, a former Army private and intelligence analyst.

Justice Department officials last week added several more charges related to publishing a select range of the classified documents that revealed the names of low-level, local sources utilized by the U.S. government, including Afghan and Iraqi nationals, as well as journalists, human rights activists and religious leaders.