Assange extradition decision due February 24

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange will fight a British judge's decision to extradite him to Sweden over allegations of sexual assault in a two-day hearing in July, it was announced on Wednesday.The hearing at the High Court in London will take place on July 12-13, the court said.Assange is appealing after District Judge Howard Riddle ruled in February that extradition to Sweden would not breach his human rights.

In the seven years since he founded WikiLeaks, Julian Assange's relationships with a number of his former collaborators and supporters have broken down, with each side variously claiming broken promises or bad faith on the part of the other.

It is an odd sight: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is wearing a jacket and tie, but no shoes. Then again, if you have not stepped outside Ecuador's London embassy for a year, shoes are largely pointless.

A lawyer for Julian Assange argued Friday that Sweden's prime minister had ruined the WikiLeaks founder's chances of a fair trial over rape claims as he attempted to stall his extradition from Britain.In closing arguments in Assange's extradition case, lawyer Geoffrey Robertson attacked Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt's comments which indicated that the whistleblowing website's chief had taken women's rights "lightly".Robertson told Belmarsh Magistrates' Court that Assange was "enemy number one as a result of the prime minister's statement".

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange appeared in a British court on Monday to fight attempts to extradite him to Sweden over sex crime allegations.Lawyers for the 39-year-old Australian are expected to argue that the extradition request is unacceptable because he has not been charged with any crime.Wearing a grey coat and dark blue suit and tie, Assange smiled as he entered the complex at Belmarsh Magistrates' Court in southeast London, Britain's highest security court, for the start of the two-day hearing.

A news website says WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange regards his bid to become an Australian senator as a defense against potential criminal prosecution in the United States and Britain. Assange spoke to The Conversation website at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London where he was granted asylum in June to avoid extradition to Sweden on sex crime allegations. If he wins a Senate seat at elections on Sept. 24, Assange told the website in an article published on Monday that the U.S. Department of Justice would drop its espionage investigation rather than risk a diplomatic row.