Assange called a threat to people who risk their lives for US

LONDON • WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was called a threat to the people "who put their lives at risk to assist the United States" on the first day of his extradition trial in London.

Mr James Lewis, a lawyer for the US, told a London court that Assange's case has little to do with freedom of the press. Instead, he tried to narrow the focus of the US charges down to the harm to secret agents caused by the WikiLeaks disclosures.

Assange faces a maximum prison term of 175 years in the US for charges that he conspired to obtain and disclose classified documents passed to him by former Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning.

The documents, including 90,000 Afghanistan war-related activity reports, 400,000 Iraq war-related reports and 250,000 State Department cables, were published by WikiLeaks in 2010 and 2011.

"This is not a case involving any charges of publications of disclosure of war crimes or matters such as that," Mr Lewis said. "It's limited solely to the disclosure of sources where there is obvious harm."

Hundreds of people across the world had to be warned after the WikiLeaks disclosures and some had to be relocated from their countries, Mr Lewis said.

"Some sources identified by WikiLeaks... subsequently disappeared," he said, although he added that the US authorities could not prove that that was a result of WikiLeaks' action.

The month-long trial began after Assange's lawyers alleged that US President Donald Trump instructed a former congressman to offer him a pardon if he "played ball" and denied Russia's involvement in Democratic National Committee leaks during the 2016 election.

US political motivations are set to play a prominent part in the case.

Hundreds of Assange's supporters chanted loudly outside the courtroom, leading the judge to send out a note telling them to stop interrupting the proceedings.

Assange, 48, has been in London's notorious Belmarsh prison since he was evicted last April from the Ecuadorian embassy where he had been given refuge for several years after skipping bail to avoid questioning in a Swedish sexual-assault case. That case was dropped last November after Swedish prosecutors said the allegations had been weakened as the memories of witnesses faded.

A hero to admirers who said he exposed abuses of power, Assange is cast by critics as a dangerous enemy of the state who has undermined Western security.

He said the extradition was politically motivated by those embarrassed by his revelations.

Ms Jennifer Robinson, Assange's lawyer, said his case could lead to criminalising activities crucial to investigative journalists and his work shed an unprecedented light on how the US conducted its wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"We are talking about collateral murder, evidence of war crimes," she said. "They are a remarkable resource for those of us seeking to hold governments to account for abuses."

WikiLeaks angered Washington by publishing hundreds of thousands of secret US diplomatic cables that laid bare critical US appraisals of world leaders, from Russian President Vladimir Putin to members of the Saudi royal family.

Assange made international headlines in 2010 when WikiLeaks published a classified US military video showing a 2007 attack by Apache helicopters in Baghdad that killed a dozen people, including two Reuters news staff.

The hearing at London's Woolwich Crown Court will not decide if Assange is guilty of any wrongdoing, but whether the extradition request meets the requirements set out under a 2003 United Kingdom-US treaty, which critics say is stacked in favour of the US.

If the judge decides that Assange should be extradited, the decision needs to be rubber-stamped by Home Secretary Priti Patel.

Assange would also have the right to appeal to London's High Court and then possibly to the Supreme Court, Britain's top judicial body.

BLOOMBERG, REUTERS