WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange will face a British High Court on Monday to decide whether the accused leaker will be extradited to the US after more than a decade of legal battles.
Assange has been in British custody since 2019, after the Ecuadorian government revoked his political asylum status and expelled him from the embassy in London after seven years. He faces 18 charges in the US over WikiLeaks’ publication of hundreds of thousands of classified military and intelligence documents in 2010.
US prosecutors say the Australian worked with military intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning to steal the documents – including secret diplomatic cables and military information about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan – and distribute them online. Manning was convicted and served seven years in prison for her role in the scheme.
His supporters have painted Assange as a victim of political persecution, targeted for his work as a journalist because he casts a poor light on the US military. The leaked information included records of airstrikes in Iraq and Afghanistan that killed civilians.
“Julian was indicted for receiving, possessing and communicating to the public information about evidence of war crimes committed by the U.S. government,” his wife, Stella Assange, told the Associated Press. “Reporting a crime is never a crime.”
Assange initially sought asylum at the Ecuadorian Embassy to escape a Swedish rape investigation and out of fear that he could be extradited to the US for his work at WikiLeaks. The rape investigation was later shelved in 2021 as time passed.
After serving a year in prison in the UK for avoiding bail after being arrested in 2019, a British judge initially blocked his extradition to the US in 2021. The judge ruled that Assange would likely kill himself if he were sent to the USA, given the harsh conditions of the country’s prison system.
The British government finally allowed his extradition in 2022, which he appealed.
The crux of Monday’s High Court hearing is whether assurances from the US government can overcome concerns for Assange’s well-being.
Stella Assange said the “so-called guarantees” – including that prosecutors would not carry out the death penalty – were made up of “evasive words”.
WikiLeaks editor-in-chief Kristinn Hrafnsson said the justices asked whether Assange could rely on First Amendment protections.
“It should be an easy yes or no question,” Hrafnsson said. “The answer was, ‘He can rely on the protections of the First Amendment.’ Is this a no’. So the only rational decision on Monday is for the judges to say, ‘This isn’t good enough.’ Anything else is a judicial scandal.”
If the three-judge panel supports Assange’s arguments and does not allow his extradition, years of legal struggle will begin. If the court allows his extradition, Assange’s legal team has said it will ask the European Court of Human Rights to intervene.
President Biden could also intervene in the case, fulfilling a request from the Australian government to drop the charges and allow Assange to return to his home country. Biden said last month that he was “considering” the request.
This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story
