Julian Assange is facing a second day in the High Court as part of long-standing battle against extradition to the US, where he is accused of leaking confidential military secrets.
He was unable to attend the first day of the hearing as his barrister told the court was too unwell.
The WikiLeaks founder is wanted by US authorities over an alleged conspiracy to obtain and disclose national defence information following the publication of hundreds of thousands of leaked documents relating to the Afghanistan and Iraq wars.
Lawyers for the 52-year-old argued that if extradited, he would face a “flagrant denial of justice” by prejudiced judges, and was being prosecuted for an “ordinary journalistic practice”.
The two-day hearing comes after a judge ruled in January 2021 that Assange should not be sent to the US, given a real risk of suicide while ruling against him on all other issues.
However, this was successfully challenged by US authorities, which would have resulted in his extradition. Assange, who is currently based in HMP Belmarsh in south-east London, is now asking for the go-ahead to challenge the original judge’s dismissal of other parts of his case.