The founder of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, said today in front of a court in London that he will not agree to be extradited to the United States of America, where he is accused of planning to break into the Pentagon's computer with classified information.
Giving evidence from a London prison via video link, Assange said he would not "surrender for extradition for doing journalism that has won many awards and protected many people".
Judge Michael Snow said it would likely take "many months" to complete the full hearing on the US extradition request for Assange. The hearing will continue on May 30, and then on June 12.
Wearing jeans and a sports jacket, Assange appeared calm during the brief hearing before the court.
Assange was yesterday sentenced to 50 weeks in prison in the UK for failing to respond to a court summons in 2012, breaching the terms of his parole. Instead of responding to the summons, the 47-year-old Australian sought asylum in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London in June 2012 to avoid extradition to Sweden, where he was wanted on charges of rape and sexual assault.
Assange claims that he sought asylum because he feared extradition to the US, where he would be tried for publishing classified military documents through WikiLeaks.
US authorities charge Assange with conspiring with former US military intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning to break into a computer with classified information at the Pentagon. The indictment was announced on April 11 after Assange was arrested earlier that day at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London.
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