WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is proven making an announcement to the media gathered outdoors the High Court in London, Dec. 5, 2011.
Kirsty Wigglesworth/AP
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Kirsty Wigglesworth/AP
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is proven making an announcement to the media gathered outdoors the High Court in London, Dec. 5, 2011.
Kirsty Wigglesworth/AP
LONDON — Julian Assange’s attorneys will start their final U.Ok. legal problem on Tuesday to cease the WikiLeaks founder from being despatched to the United States to face spying expenses.
The 52-year-old has been combating extradition for greater than a decade, together with seven years in self-exile within the Ecuadorian Embassy in London and the final 5 years in a high-security jail.
Assange’s attorneys will ask two High Court judges to grant a brand new attraction listening to, his final legal roll of the cube in Britain. If the judges rule in opposition to Assange, he can ask the European Court of Human Rights to block his extradition – although supporters fear he could possibly be placed on a airplane to the U.S. earlier than that occurs.
Judges Victoria Sharp and Jeremy Johnson may ship a verdict on the finish of the two-day listening to on Wednesday, however they’re extra probably to take a number of weeks to think about their determination.
“This hearing marks the beginning of the end of the extradition case, as any grounds rejected by these judges cannot be further appealed in the U.K. – bringing Assange dangerously close to extradition,” the press freedom group Reporters Without Borders stated.
Assange supporters plan to exhibit outdoors the neo-Gothic courtroom constructing on each days and march to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s Downing Street workplace on the finish of the listening to.
Assange, an Australian citizen, has been indicted on 17 expenses of espionage and one cost of laptop misuse over his web site’s publication of categorized U.S. paperwork. U.S. prosecutors say he helped U.S. Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning steal diplomatic cables and army information that WikiLeaks later revealed, placing lives in danger.
To his supporters, Assange is a secrecy-busting journalist who uncovered U.S. army wrongdoing in Iraq and Afghanistan and is entitled to First Amendment protections. They argue that the prosecution is politically motivated and he will not get a good trial within the U.S.
His spouse Stella Assange — a lawyer whom he married in jail in 2022 — says his well being has deteriorated throughout years of confinement.
“His health is in decline, mentally and physically. His life is at risk every single day he stays in prison, and if he’s extradited, he will die,” she informed reporters final week.
Assange’s legal troubles started in 2010, when he was arrested in London on the request of Sweden, which needed to query him about allegations of rape and sexual assault made by two girls. In 2012, Assange jumped bail and sought refuge contained in the Ecuadorian Embassy, the place he was past the attain of U.Ok. and Swedish authorities — however was additionally successfully a prisoner within the tiny diplomatic mission.
The relationship between Assange and his hosts finally soured, and he was evicted from the embassy in April 2019. British police instantly arrested him for breaching bail in 2012. He has been held in London’s Belmarsh Prison all through his extradition battle. Sweden dropped the intercourse crimes investigations in November 2019 as a result of a lot time had elapsed.
Assange’s attorneys say he may face up to 175 years in jail if convicted, although American authorities have stated the sentence is probably going to be a lot shorter than that.
A U.Ok. district courtroom decide rejected the U.S. extradition request in 2021 on the grounds that Assange was probably to kill himself if held below harsh U.S. jail circumstances. Higher courts overturned that call after getting assurances from the U.S. about his therapy. The British authorities signed an extradition order in June 2022.
Meanwhile, the Australian parliament final week known as for Assange to be allowed to return to his homeland.
“Regardless of where people stand, this thing cannot just go on and on and on indefinitely,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese stated.
