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Bloomberg
Julian Assange’s extradition trial, set to begin next month, has been delayed amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The three-week trial was due to begin on May 18 in London, but was postponed until July or even November, because of the extension of the UK lockdown.
Assange faces extradition to America on charges that he conspired to disclose documents passed to him by former US Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning. The 48-year-old has been in a London jail for a year since he was kicked out of the Ecuadorian embassy where he was hiding from Swedish allegations.
His lawyer, Edward Fitzgerald, said that trial preparations have been hamstrung by a prison ban on visitors during the lockdown. If the hearing went ahead in May, Assange would “be facing a David and Goliath battle with his hands behind his back,†Fitzgerald said. The delayed proceedings will actually be the second tranche of a four-week trial.
The Australian didn’t participate by video-link on Monday as he was unwell, Fitzgerald told the court.