Julian Assange to fight extradition to U.S., case adjourned until May 30

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assangetold a London court on Thursday that he will fight extradition to the United States, where he is accused of conspiring to hack into a Pentagon computer.

Assange, appearing at Westminster Magistrates'Court by video link from London's Belmarsh Prison,said he would not "surrender myself for extradition for doing journalism that has won many awards and protected many people."

Judge Michael Snow said it would likely be "many months" before a full hearing is held on the substance of the U.S. extradition case. The judge set a procedural hearing for May 30, with a substantive hearing to follow on June 12.

The47-year-old Australian was sentenced Wednesday to a 50-week prison sentence for jumping bail in 2012 and holing up in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. At the time, he was facing extradition to Sweden for questioning over rape and sexual assault allegations made by two women.

Assange saidhe sought asylum because he feared being sent to the U.S. to face charges related to theWikiLeakspublication of classified U.S. military documents.

A few dozen WikiLeaks supporters holding signs reading "Free Assange" and "No extradition" gathered outside the London courthouse before Thursday's hearing.

Some who had waitedtwo hours hoping to get in were disappointed when those seats were filled by journalists and lawyers. They shouted angrily at court staff and complained they were being discriminated against for backing Assange.

Assange was arrested last month in London after his relationship with his embassy hosts went sour and Ecuador revoked his political asylum.

"The fight has just begun. It will be a long one and a hard one," said WikiLeaks editor in chief Kristinn Hrafnsson, who claimed Assange was being held in "appalling" conditions at Belmarsh Prison. He said Assange was confined to his cell 23 hours a day, "what we call in general terms solitary confinement."

U.S. charge carries5-year max sentence

U.S. authorities accuse Assange of scheming with former army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning to break a password for a classified government computer.

Manning served several years in prison for leaking classified documents to WikiLeaks. She was jailed again in March after refusing to testify to a grand jury investigating the secret-spilling organization.

Ben Brandon, a lawyer for the U.S. government, said in court Thursday that U.S. investigators had obtained details of chatroom communications between Manning and Assange in 2010. Brandon said the pair had "engaged in real time discussions regarding Chelsea Manning's dissemination of confidential records to Mr. Assange."

He said the documents allegedly downloaded from a classified U.S. computer included 90,000 activity reports from the war in Afghanistan, 400,000 Iraq war-related reports, 800 Guantanamo Bay detainee assessments and 250,000 State Department cables.

The U.S. charge against Assange carries a maximum five-year prison sentence, but he is worried the U.S. could add more serious allegations against him.