[News:] Assange hearings postponed after lawyer ‘may have had exposure’ to COVID-19

(London, U.K.) Julian Assange’s ongoing U.S. extradition proceedings have been adjourned until Monday (September 14) after a junior barrister in the case is suspected to have been in contact with COVID-19.

Court hearings commenced on Thursday (September 10) with the usual confusion, delays and minor technical difficulties, but soon into the morning session it became clear that a postponement would be needed once it emerged that the husband of a prosecution lawyer had displayed COVID-like symptoms in the run-up to the day.

After discussing the situation with the Recorder of London — a senior Circuit Judge at the Central Criminal Court — District Judge Vanessa Baraitser told the Old Bailey that she accepts both the prosecution and defence’s applications for a delay.

She said: “Last night, I was that informed one of the junior barristers in the case might have had exposure to the virus [Covid-19] and the reason that the prosecution and some members of the defence do not appear in court today is out of caution.”

She added that the individual in question — whose identity is known but has been withheld following a request to keep the information confidential — will receive their test today and a result is expected by Friday.

Once Baraitser is informed of the test result, she said she will inform the court of how the matter will be taken forward on Monday’s hearing which has been scheduled to commence at 10 a.m.

She added that simply because lawyers were able to attend the hearing by the government’s Cloud Video Platform on this occasion, it does not mean the same will be permitted in future hearings.

It followed comments from both the prosecution and the defence that indicated the difficulties that conducting the hearings via video-conference would present.

The case continues.