By Tim Stickings For Mailonline
Published: 12:26 BST, 11 June 2019 | Updated: 14:29 BST, 11 June 2019
5 shares
2
View
comments
America has sent Britain a formal request to extradite Julian Assange in a bid to put him on trial for leaking military secrets.
Assange is due in a British court for an extradition hearing on Friday and is wanted across the Atlantic for what U.S. officials call 'one of the largest compromises of classified information in the history of the United States'.
Justice Department officials sent the official request on Thursday, meeting a 60-day deadline after the WikiLeaks founder was arrested on April 11, government sources told the Washington Post.
Assange is accused of working with former US army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning in 'unlawfully obtaining and disclosing classified documents related to the national defense'.
Julian Assange, pictured leaving the Ecuadorian Embassy on April 11, is facing possible extradition to the United States where officials want to charge him for leaking secrets
The Justice Department said that by publishing unredacted versions of the leaked files, Assange put 'named human sources at a grave and imminent risk'.
However, Assange is expected
