LONDON, England (NBC) – Hearings began in London Monday to determine if Wikileaks founder Julian Assange should be extradited to the UNITED states.
The U.S. has charged Assange with 18 criminal counts including conspiring to hack government computers and violating the espionage act.
It has been almost ten years since Wikileaks leaked secret U.S. documents.
The 48-year-old has spent the ten months in a British jail after he was taken from the Ecuadorian embassy in London where he had stayed for seven years.
Assange’s lawyer said his case could lead to making it a criminal offense to do what investigative journalists do.
The secret documents released by Wikileaks concerned the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, plus U.S. appraisals of world leaders like Vladimir Putin and the Saudi royal family.
© 2024 KOBI-TV NBC5. All rights reserved unless otherwise stated.