Won't block Assange's extradition to US, says Jeremy Hunt

Britain's Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt, who is widely considered a frontrunner to replace outgoing Theresa May, said on Sunday that he would not block the extradition of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange to the United States if he was chosen to lead the British Government.

Responding to a question by CBS journalist Margaret Brennan on the matter, Hunt replied, "Well we would have to follow our own legal processes just as the U.S. has to follow its own legal processes. But do I think- would I want to stand in the way of Julian Assange facing justice? No, I would not."

Assange is currently serving 50 weeks imprisonment sentence in UK's Belmarsh prison and the US is seeking his extradition on charges of conspiracy to hack into a classified government computer.

Hunt's statement came at the heels of the reports that the US State Department would likely back down on plans to charge Assange for the infamous Vault 7 leak due to time constraints and concerns that the move could result in the leaking of more classified documents, reported Sputnik.

Vault 7 refers to the collection of over 8,700 documents published by WikiLeaks in 2017 which detailed the CIA's cyber operations and stealth hacking tools, including viruses, trojans and other "weaponised" malware.

Although the CIA has neither confirmed nor contested the authenticity of the disclosed files, they are understood to be genuine, according to statements by former CIA staffer and whistleblower Edward Snowden, and other unnamed government officials.