On Wednesday, a British judge finally approved Julian Assange’s extradition to the United States to face spying allegations. The case will now be decided by Britain’s interior minister, and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange still has legal options.
The order comes after the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom denied Assange permission to appeal a lower court’s decision that he might be extradited last month. In a brief hearing, a judge at Westminster Magistrates’ Court issued the order, which Assange observed via video link from Belmarsh Prison. Priti Patel, the Home Secretary, will now decide whether or not to grant the extradition request.
The action does not rule out other legal possibilities for Julian Assange
The action does not rule out other legal possibilities for Assange, who has been attempting for years to avoid a trial in the United States on charges stemming from WikiLeaks’ publishing of a massive collection of sensitive documents over a decade ago. His attorneys have four weeks to submit their arguments to Ms. Patel, and they can also file an appeal with the High Court. Mark Summers, Assange’s lawyer, told the court that his client’s legal team had “important representations” to make.
The US has requested that Assange be extradited to the United States so that he can face accusations of espionage and computer misuse. According to American authorities, Assange illegally assisted Chelsea Manning, a U.S. Army intelligence analyst, in stealing sensitive diplomatic cables and military data, which WikiLeaks eventually published, endangering lives.
Supporters and lawyers for Assange, 50, claim that he was working as a journalist when he published papers that showed US military misbehavior in Iraq and Afghanistan, and that he is entitled to First Amendment freedom of speech rights. They claim that his lawsuit is driven by politics.
An extradition request from the United States was initially denied by a British district court judge on the grounds that Assange might kill himself if kept in harsh US prison conditions. Later, US authorities assured the WikiLeaks founder that he would not be subjected to the harsh punishment that his lawyers claimed would jeopardize his physical and mental health.
The Supreme Court overruled the lower court’s ruling in December, stating that the United States’ commitments were sufficient to ensure that Assange would be treated humanely. If Assange is convicted in the United States, his lawyers say he could face up to 175 years in prison, though American authorities have said the penalty is likely to be far less.
Since his arrest in 2019 for skipping bail during a separate court struggle, Julian Assange has been incarcerated at Britain’s high-security Belmarsh Prison in London. He had previously spent seven years at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, attempting to evade extradition to Sweden, where he was accused of rape and sexual abuse.
Because so much time has passed, Sweden decided to end its sex crimes inquiry in November 2019. Julian Assange married his partner Stella Moris in a prison ceremony last month.