The judge in Julian Assange’s extradition hearing today refused to order everyone to wear masks in the courtroom in the wake of last week’s coronavirus scare.
Proceedings ground to a halt last week when one of the prosecutor team’s partner came down with a temperature, prompting fears that they had contracted Covid-19.
Test results came back negative and the hearings resumed again this morning, but Assange’s barrister Mark Summers QC asked for mandatory face coverings within the courtroom.
District Judge Vanessa Baraitser, sitting at the Old Bailey, said she would allow the practice while the court is sitting, but refused to order everyone to comply.
“Those that wish to wear masks in the well of the court are welcome to do so unless they are addressing the court," she said. “There is no obligation to do so, and I make no direction.”
Assange himself donned a mask in the dock for the first time today, having sat flanked by guards with his face uncovered in the first week of the case.
Mr Summers was one of the few participants wearing a mask regularly last week and continued to do so today. But he has now been joined in the practice by fellow defence QC Edward Fitzgerald as well as leading prosecutors James Lewis and Clair Dobbin.
Giving evidence today, Eric Lewis, an experienced US lawyer, said Assange will likely be held in a US prison with “severely limited” access to his legal team and documents while preparing for a trial.
He gave evidence that Assange would face a possible 175-year sentence if convicted on all 18 charges he faces, pointing out in the US “sentences are longer than are found elsewhere in the world”.
“Legal scholars and other observers have expressed the view that if successful the government will press for Mr Assange to be punished to the fullest extent of the law”, he said.
Assange is facing espionage charges and Mr Lewis said he believes if convicted he would be subjected to “significant restrictions beyond the average criminal defendant in US federal prisons, yet he would not be afforded a meaningful process of challenging his regime and its severe restrictions”.
