OREANDA-NEWS. A British court adjourned a hearing on May 18 to extradite WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to the United States. This decision, according to WikiLeaks on Twitter, was made by the judge of the Westminster Magistrates Court of London Vanessa Baraitser, having announced it at the procedural hearings on Monday.

The first stage of the proceedings on the extradition of Assange to the United States took place in a London court in February, the second stage was to start on May 18 and last three weeks. However, the Australian defense requested a postponement of the meeting until September due to an outbreak of the disease caused by a new type of coronavirus. The prosecution side also agreed with this position, pointing out that it is not safe to hold hearings in the current environment.

The judge initially intended to postpone the start of the hearing to November 2, since up to this point in the court schedule there was no “window” for conducting a three-week trial. However, the defense indicated that this was too much delay. Now the hearing continues in September, possibly in a different court.