Thread by @Williamrt

Day 3 of Julian Assange's extradition hearing at the Old Bailey is about to start at 10:30 am #Assange @ComputerWeekly

I will post updates in this thread as much as I can in between taking notes.

Yesterday Clifford Stafford Smith, founder of legal support organisation Reprieve gave evidence on the importance of WikiLeaks in exposing war crimes. #Assange @ComputerWeekly

The Judge threatened to exclude Assange from the hearings after he made a remark in court. Report on Clifford Stafford Smith's evidence here. bit.ly/2FiK7mM

Mark Feldstein, professor of broadcasting at the University of Maryland and journalism history also testified yesterday. He said that the charges against Assange were politically motivated. #Asssange @ComputerWeekly

Mark Feldstien's witness statements can be found at bit.ly/2R9nyDO and at bit.ly/3bNnfbe #Assange

The judge has arrived and Assange's lawyer is discussing which bundle of evidence to use #Assange @ComputerWeekly

Professor Paul Rodgers, emeritus professor of Peace Studies is about to give evidence. #Assange @ComputerWeekly

Report on evidence from Mark Feldstein yesterday bit.ly/32cuMNu #Assange @ComputerWeekly

Court adjourns until 2pm #Assange @ComputerWeekly

Professor Paul Rogers told the court leaks by WikiLeaks confirmed the view of analysis that the war in Afghanistan had gone wrong from the start #Assange @ComputerWeekly

Leaks also lead to people reappraising the Iraq war. The WikiLeaks war logs showed that an additional 15,000 people had been killed previously known. That led to much greater caution from western governments in going to war

Rogers said that Assange formed the WikiLeaks party in 2012 to fight a seat in the Australian senate. His view was that he wanted much greater accountability and transparency for governments, NGOs and socieity

The success of WikiLeaks bringing things to the pubic attention is very dangerous for the Trump administration, Rogers told the court. There is a belief that Assange poses some sort of threat #Assange

"This does appear to be a political trial for many reasons" said Rogers. One of the main reasons for concluding that i that the previous Obama administration considered prosecuting Assange years ago and did not. #Assange

Trump takes exception to Obama and that would be one reason why Trump takes another view on Assange, Rogers said under cross examination by Mark Summers, representing #Assange

Court is about to resume. More later

There are technical problems as the court tries to link remotely to the next witness. #Assange

Prof Rogers said that Assange clearly has a political stance. It does not fit into conventional politics. He is coming from a liberal point of view. #Assange

Video link established. Court continues

Cross examination of Trevor Timm co-founder of the Freedom of the Press Foundation has finished #Assange