Assange in court for extradition hearing

PanARMENIAN.Net - WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is headed back to a London court on February 7 to begin a two-day hearing to determine if he should be extradited to Sweden and face sex crimes allegations.

Assange is accused of sexual misconduct by two women he met during a visit to Stockholm last year.

At Belmarsh Magistrates' Court, defense lawyers will argue that he should not be extradited because he has not been charged with a crime, because of flaws in Swedish prosecutors' case - and because a ticket to Sweden could land him in Guantanamo Bay or on U.S. death row.

American officials are trying to build a criminal case against WikiLeaks, which has angered Washington by publishing a trove of leaked diplomatic cables and secret U.S. military files. Assange's lawyers claim the Swedish prosecution is linked to the leaks and politically motivated.

Nils Rekke, head of the legal department at the Swedish prosecutor's office in Stockholm, said Assange would be protected from transfer to the U.S. by strict European rules, the AP reported.

WikiLeaks sparked an international uproar last year when it published a secret helicopter video showing a U.S. attack that killed two Reuters journalists in Baghdad. It went on to release hundreds of thousands of secret U.S. military files on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and it later began publishing classified U.S. diplomatic cables whose revelations angered and embarrassed the U.S. and its allies.

Assange, 39, was arrested in London in December after Sweden issued a warrant on rape and molestation accusations. He has been released on bail on condition he live - under curfew and electronically tagged - at a supporter's country mansion in eastern England.