Dozens of supporters gathered outside Woolwich Crown Court on Monday morning as Wikileaks founder Julian Assange arrived for his highly charged extradition hearing.

Assange faces 18 charges in the United States for conspiring to hack government computers and violations of the espionage law. If convicted he could spend the rest of his life in jail.

To admirers he's a hero who exposes abuses of power, to critics he is undermining western security and putting lives at risk.

In their opening statement, lawyers For the U.S. government said that journalism was not an excuse for breaking laws.

His defense attorneys are expected to fight on the grounds that these were political offenses and he cannot be extradited on these grounds.

Speaking before the hearing Assange's father said that all journalists and publishers could be at risk if his son is extradited.

Vaughan Smith is a colleague of Assange who put up much of his original bail money. He said, "this is a hugely significant test case for freedom of speech in the digital age. What is the role of transparency in society will be guided a lot by the outcome of this case".

Ten years ago Julian Assange's Wikileaks website published thousands of secret US documents, leaked by the U.S. intelligence analyst, Chelsea Manning.

He made global headlines after releasing a classified military video showing an attack by U.S. helicopters in Iraq killing civilians including two Reuters news staff.

Juliane Assange's life has been in upheaval since then. FBI investigations following the Chelsea Manning leaks would eventually lead to charges of conspiracy to commit computer intrusion (i.e. hacking into a government computer). This is a relatively minor crime that carries a maximum 5-year sentence if found guilty.

Assange was also wanted in Sweden on sex assault charges, something he denied. Those charges have now lapsed because of the amount of time that passed.

Rather than be extradited to Sweden Assange jumped bail in 2012 and took refuge in Ecuador's embassy in London, claiming once in Sweden he could be extradited to the U.S.

Holed up in the embassy he continued to coordinate WikiLeaks and in 2016 during the U.S. presidential campaign he published thousands of hacked documents linked to presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. Some say it cost her the election.

Assange was to spend almost seven years in the embassy, before a change of Presidency in Ecuador saw him lose his protected status.

In April 2019 he was dragged from the embassy and taken into custody and subsequently jailed for 50 weeks for jumping bail.

Only after that, on May 23rd did it emerge that he had been indicted on 17 new charges, relating to the espionage act which carries a maximum sentence of 170 years in prison.

Now the 48 year-old Australian has arrived at Woolwich crown court, which must decide whether he should be extradited to the United States.

This court hearing is not about whether he is guilty of the crimes he's accused of but whether the extradition request meets the requirements of the 2005 UK- U.S. treaty, which critics say unfairly favours the United States.

This could be a long drawn out process. The hearing are due to take around two weeks then there will be a break, resuming on May 18th for a further three or four weeks. That could be followed by appeals to higher courts.