Julian Assange, the founder of the online whistleblowing website WikiLeaks, is back in a London court today fighting extradition to Sweden for questioning about alleged sex crimes. On Monday, Assange’s attorney insisted that his client had had consensual sex with his two accusers and that Assange should not be sent to Sweden because he would face a secret trial that violates international standards of fairness. On Monday, Assange spoke outside the courthouse.

bq.Julian Assange: “For the past five-and-a-half months, we have been in a condition where a black box has been applied to my life. And on the outside of that black box has been written the word 'rape.' That box is now, thanks to an open court process, being opened. And I hope over the next day we will see that that box is in fact empty and has nothing to do with the words that are on the outside of it.”

Meanwhile, the Stop the War Coalition organized an event in London Monday to show support for Assange. Speakers included former British parliamentarian Tony Benn.

bq.Tony Benn: “The Swedes are trying to get Julian back to Sweden. Now, of course, if he goes back to Sweden, then the Americans will go in and get him extradited back to the United States, and like Bradley Manning, who began this work, he could easily be put in solitary confinement and denied a fair trial. And then the whole WikiLeaks story could be ended, and we’d be back to the secrecy that we are protesting against now.”