LONDON: Lawyers for the United States on Wednesday urged a UK court to block a last-ditch bid by Julian Assange to appeal his extradition to the country to face espionage charges. Washington indicted the WikiLeaks founder multiple times between 2018 and 2020 over its publication of hundreds of thousands of secret military and diplomatic files on the US-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The long-running legal saga in Britain’s courts is now nearing a conclusion after Assange lost successive rulings in recent years. If he fails with this latest appeal bid, he could be extradited within weeks.

On the second of two days of evidence before two High Court judges, Clair Dobbin, a lawyer for the US government, summarised its various arguments for blocking another appeal.

She argued that Assange had “solicited” secret US military and diplomatic files and, in publishing them “indiscriminately” without redactions, that his actions were “unprecedented” and not journalism. “It’s these facts that distinguish him — not his political opinions,” she said.

“The evidence shows that from the time the appellant started WikiLeaks... he sought to recruit individuals with access to classified information,” Dobbin added. “He worked with hackers.”

Assange was absent from the court for the two-day session, and did not follow the proceedings via video due to illness, his lawyer told the judges Tuesday.