by New Worker correspondent

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange appeared at the High Court in London onTuesday to appeal against his extradition to Sweden over sex allegations. The former computer hacker was arrested in December over the sex assault claims, while WikiLeaks was in the process of releasing another huge cache of leaked US diplomatic cables. Assange says the claims are without basis and that he has no chance of a fair trial in Sweden because of the controversy around the case which followed an earlier massive leak of secret American documents. His lawyers also claim that if Assange was deported to Sweden he could then face extradition to the United States and incarceration in Guantánamo Bay on charges that carry the death penalty.