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Published 22:00 IST, October 11th 2019

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange put on remand by UK Westminster court

After a short hearing in London court, Julian Assange, founder of WikiLeaks was remanded in custody on October 11. The court will give verdict in next hearing.

Reported by: Pragya Puri
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After a short hearing in the London court, Julian Assange, who is the founder of WikiLeaks, was remanded in custody on October 11. The London court ahead of the hearing will give its verdict whether Assange who is accused of spying, should be transferred to the United States for further legal proceedings. Julian Assange is currently facing legal charges in 18 cases in the United States. 

Julian Assange remanded in custody

WikiLeaks’ founder Julian Assange was remanded in custody on Friday after a brief hearing in a London court which will decide whether he should be extradited to the United States to face spying charges. It was reported that Assange initially faced allegations in the United States under the Espionage Act for staking the national security by revealing the information in the secret war crimes documents. His charges also included hacking government computers.

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The verdict came after 5 minutes of hearing

In a video released from Belmarsh Prison in east London, Assange just said his name and age and later was remanded in custody until his next hearing scheduled for this month. Tam Ikram, who is the presiding judge on the Assange case, said after the five-minute hearing that he hopes there can be the scope of progress in the case. The hearing was held at London’s Westminster Magistrates’ Court. The Australia-born Assange spent seven years in isolation and in an asylum in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London.

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READ: UK Home Secretary Sajid Javid Signs Request To Extradite WikiLeaks' Founder Julian Assange To The USA. Details Here

WikiLeaks case

He came to limelight when WikiLeaks published thousands of secret U.S diplomat documents. The White House in response said that documents can risk the lives of citizens. Assange was arrested on April 11, 2019. He is at present serving his term in an asylum in the Ecuadorean Embassy. An anti-secrecy organisation, Wikileaks was founded in 2006 as a platform for whistleblowers to release classified information anonymously. By 2015, Wikileaks published over 10 million documents, including top-secret documents. The documents include intercepter pager messages that were sent during 9/11 terror attack from FBI, NYPD, Pentagon and FEMA, thousands of Democratic National Committee emails during the 2016 US presidential campaign, Iran war logs, Afghan war details of US military unrecorded activities against civilians as well as confidential cables sent among diplomats and even released documents from movie studio Sony Pictures revealing the pay-gap between male and female stars.

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20:38 IST, October 11th 2019