LONDON—A British judge refused a request by lawyers acting for Julian Assange to adjourn his extradition hearing until next year, as the WikiLeaks founder’s fight against extradition to the U.S. resumed after months of delay caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
Mr. Assange, a 49-year-old Australian, is wanted in the U.S. on 18 charges of breaking espionage laws and conspiring to hack a military computer. The alleged offenses relate to the publication in 2010 and 2011 by WikiLeaks of a huge trove of classified material that painted a bleak picture of the American campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan and their aftermath.
Mr. Assange has repeatedly defended his work and the wider WikiLeaks project as public-interest journalism that exposed wrongdoing by the U.S. and other governments.
The latest stage of the hearing, which had been due to take place in May but was pushed back when a nationwide lockdown to halt the coronavirus disrupted British courts, began Monday and is scheduled to last several weeks.
Lawyers say they would expect either side to appeal the initial ruling expected shortly after the hearing wraps up, meaning a final decision on Mr. Assange’s extradition may not be made until next year or 2022.
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