LONDON: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was Tuesday absent due to illness from a London court hearing his final appeal against extradition to the United States to face trial for publishing secret military and diplomatic files.
Opening the two-day hearing in Assange's absence, his lawyer Edward Fitzgerald said his prosecution could not be justified.
Washington wants the Australian extradited after he was charged there multiple times between 2018 and 2020 over WikiLeaks' 2010 publication of files relating to the US-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"He is being prosecuted for engaging in ordinary journalistic practice of obtaining and publishing classified information, information that is both true and of obvious and important public interest," Fitzgerald said.
Earlier, he told the judge, Victoria Sharp, at London's High Court that his 52-year-old client was "not well today" and would not be attending either in person or by video link.
Arriving ahead of the two-day hearing, Assange's wife Stella thanked a crowd of protesters, saying: "Please keep on showing up, be there for Julian and for us, until Julian is free."
"We have two big days ahead. We don't know what to expect, but you're here because the world is watching," Stella Assange added.
"They just cannot get away with this. Julian needs his freedom and we all need the truth," she said.
The long-running legal saga in Britain's courts is now nearing a conclusion, after Assange lost successive rulings in recent years.
If this week's bid to appeal is successful, he will have another chance to argue his case in a London court, with a date set for a full hearing.
If he loses, Assange will have exhausted all UK appeals and will enter the extradition process, although his team have indicated they will appeal to European courts.
Stella Assange has said her husband will ask the European Court of Human Rights to temporarily halt the extradition if needed, warning he would die if sent to the United States.
"Tomorrow and the day after will determine whether he lives or dies essentially, and he's physically and mentally obviously in a very difficult place," she told BBC radio on Monday.
US President Joe Biden has faced sustained pressure, both domestically and internationally, to drop the 18-count indictment Assange faces in federal court in Virginia, which was filed under his predecessor Donald Trump. — AFP
Oman Observer is now on the WhatsApp channel. Click here
