WikiLeaks' Assange back in court

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.

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.

A British court has agreed to extradite WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to Sweden to face allegations of rape and sexual assault. Assange will appeal, his legal team has confirmed. If they lose he will be sent to Sweden in 10 days.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange can be extradited to Sweden to face rape and sexual assault allegations, a British judge ruled on Thursday."I must order that Mr Assange be extradited to Sweden," judge Howard Riddle said in a decision at Belmarsh Magistrates' Court in southeast London, following an extradition hearing earlier this month.Lawyers for the 39-year-old Australian, who was detained in Britain on a Swedish arrest warrant in December, said earlier that they would appeal if the decision went against their client.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has called on Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard to bring him home just days before he faces an extradition hearing related to sexual assault allegations.Australian-born Assange, on bail in Britain while fighting extradition to Sweden, is due in court in London on Monday.Swedish prosecutors want to question the 39-year-old about allegations made by two women that he sexually assaulted them, but he insists the attempt is politically motivated and linked to WikiLeaks' activities.

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.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange appeared in a British court on Tuesday to begin the latest stage of his bitter legal battle against extradition to Sweden to face allegations of rape.The 40-year-old Australian is launching an appeal at the High Court in London against a ruling in February in which a judge rejected his defence's arguments that he would face an unfair trial in Sweden.Wearing a grey suit, blue tie, white shirt and glasses, Assange got out of a black car and walked slowly into the imposing court building surrounded by a scrum of cameramen and journalists.

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".