Julian Assange arrives in UK court to apply for bail

A van carrying WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange arrived at a London court on Wednesday for a hearing to decide if he should be freed from the prison where he's been held for more than a year and a half as he fought extradition to the United States.

Assange has been detained at London's high-security Belmarsh Prison since April 2019, when he was arrested for skipping bail during a separate legal battle seven years earlier.

District Judge Vanessa Baraitser will preside over a bail hearing at Westminster Magistrates' Court, two days after she rejected an American request to send Assange to the U.S. to face espionage charges over WikiLeaks' publication of secret military documents a decade ago.

Two days ago, she rejected the extradition request, saying he was likely to kill himself if held under harsh U.S. prison conditions.