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(CNN) - WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange appeared in videoconference at the Westminster magistrates court in London on Thursday for a case management hearing about his extradition process to the United States.
With glasses and a white shirt with a sweater, Assange looked calm but a little confused when the judge was closing the process. The hearing lasted less than an hour.
Assange's lawyer, Edward Fitzgerald, told the court that his team will argue, based on the current extradition treaty signed between the United States and the United Kingdom, that his client should not be extradited to that country for political reasons. "In the treaty there is a prohibition of being extradited for political crimes and that these framed and de facto crimes are political crimes," Fitzgerald told the court.
The extradition hearing will begin on February 24, 2020, said UK district judge Vanessa Baraitser.
Julian AssangeWikileaks