Julian Assange was too ill to appear by video link for the latest hearing in relation to his possible extradition to the US, lawyers for the WikiLeaks founder told a court.
The hearing was the first since 2 May, when lawyers for the US government began pressing its case to extradite him to face trial for what they described as one the largest compromises of classified information in history.
However, his solicitor Gareth Peirce told a judge at Westminster magistrates court in London on Thursday that Assange was too ill to appear by video link from prison. The date for the next hearing was confirmed as 12 June.
The senior district judge Emma Arbuthnot said the next hearing may take place in Belmarsh prison in south London, where Assange is being held, if convenient for all parties.
The US has requested the extradition of Assange, who was removed from the Ecuadorian embassy in London on 11 April. He is charged with conspiracy to commit computer intrusion, which carries a maximum penalty of five years.
(June 1, 2010)
WikiLeaks releases about 470,000 classified military documents concerning American diplomacy and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. It later releases a further tranche of more than 250,000 classified US diplomatic cables.
(November 1, 2010)
A Swedish prosecutor issues a European arrest warrant for Assange over sexual assault allegations involving two Swedish women. Assange denies the claims.
(December 7, 2010)
He turns himself in to police in London and is placed in custody. He is later released on bail and calls the Swedish allegations a smear campaign.
(February 1, 2011)
A British judge rules that Assange can be extradited to Sweden. Assange fears Sweden will hand him over to US authorities who could prosecute him.
(June 19, 2012)
He takes refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy in London. He requests, and is later granted, political asylum.
(February 5, 2016)
The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention says Assange has been 'arbitrarily detained' and should be able to claim compensation from Britain and Sweden. Britain and Sweden rebuff the non-binding ruling.
(November 14, 2016)
Assange is questioned in a two-day interview over the allegations at the Ecuadorian embassy by Swedish authorities.
(January 19, 2017)
WikiLeaks says Assange could travel to the United States to face investigation if his rights are 'guaranteed'. It comes after one of the site's main sources of leaked documents, Chelsea Manning, is given clemency.
(March 9, 2017)
Nigel Farage is spotted visiting the Ecuadorian embassy.
(May 19, 2017)
Swedish prosecutors say they have closed their seven-year sex assault investigation into Assange. British police say they would still arrest him if he leaves the embassy as he breached the terms of his bail in 2012.
(January 11, 2018)
Britain refuses Ecuador's request to accord Assange diplomatic status, which would allow him to leave the embassy without being arrested.
(February 13, 2018)
He loses a bid to have his British arrest warrant cancelled on health grounds.
(March 28, 2018)
Ecuador cuts off Assange's internet access alleging he broke an agreement on interfering in other countries' affairs.
(November 16, 2018)
US prosecutors inadvertently disclose the existence of a sealed indictment against Assange.
(April 2, 2019)
Ecuador's President Lenin Moreno says Assange has 'repeatedly violated' the conditions of his asylum at the embassy.
(April 11, 2019)
Police arrest Assange at the embassy after his asylum was withdrawn. Scotland Yard confirmed that Assange was arrested on behalf of the US after receiving a request for his extradition. Assange has been charged by the US with 'a federal charge of conspiracy to commit computer intrusion for agreeing to break a password to a classified U.S. government computer.'
(May 1, 2019)
He is jailed for 50 weeks in the UK for breaching his bail conditions back in 2012. An apology letter from Assange is read out in court, but the judge rules that he had engaged in a “deliberate attempt to evade justice”. On the following day the US extradition proceedings were formally started.
(May 13, 2019)
Swedish prosecutors announce they are reopening an investigation into a rape allegation against Julian Assange.
But he could face decades in a US prison after it emerged last week he was also being charged with violating the Espionage Act by publishing classified information through WikiLeaks.
Prosecutors announced 17 additional charges against Assange for publishing hundreds of thousands of secret diplomatic cables and files on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Assange, 47, was previously charged with working to hack a Pentagon computer system, in a secret indictment that was unveiled soon after his arrest at Ecuador’s embassy.
WikiLeaks said on Tuesday the Australian had been moved to the hospital wing of Belmarsh after a “dramatic” loss of weight and deteriorating health.
“Mr Assange’s health had already significantly deteriorated after seven years inside the Ecuadorian embassy, under conditions that were incompatible with basic human rights,” WikiLeaks said in statement.
“During the seven weeks in Belmarsh his health has continued to deteriorate and he has dramatically lost weight. The decision of prison authorities to move him to the ward speaks for itself.”
Assange is serving a 50-week prison term for breaching bail conditions to avoid extradition to Sweden. He took refuge in the embassy in in 2012 to avoid extradition over sexual assault allegations, which he denies, but was arrested last month after his asylum was revoked.
