A new indictment against Julian Assange could further delay what was already expected to be a protracted battle to get the WikiLeaks founder out of a London jail cell and into a U.S. court.
It opens the door for his legal team to argue that the Espionage Act charges are political and thus not covered by an extradition treaty.
READ MORE: WikiLeaks’ Assange gets 50 weeks in prison for bail-jumping
Assange is serving a 50-week sentence in London after being evicted from the Ecuadorian Embassy in April. Though the United States and the United Kingdom have a longstanding extradition treaty, one exception is for political offences.
The charges filed Thursday accuse Assange of publishing secret documents containing the names of confidential military and diplomatic sources. The indictment alleges he directed former Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning in one of the largest compromises of classified information in U.S. history.
READ MORE: Lawyer alleges Ecuador spread lies about WikiLeaks founder
Eric Tucker, The Associated Press
