LONDON — A British court gave Wikileaks founder Julian Assange permission to launch a full appeal against his extradition to the United States on espionage charges on Monday after more than a decade of legal battles.
Two judges at London’s High Court said Australian-born Assange could appeal in full to hear his argument that he could be discriminated against because he is a foreigner.
Assange’s legal remedies in the UK would have been exhausted if the High Court had ruled that extradition could proceed. His legal team said last week that Assange could have been put on a plane to the US within 24 hours if they ruled against him.
Assange’s lawyer, Edward Fitzgerald, told the justices that they should not accept the assurance given by US prosecutors that his client could seek protections afforded under the First Amendment, as a US court would not be bound by that. “We say this is a grossly inadequate guarantee,” he told the court, Reuters reported.
However, Reuters said it accepted a separate assurance that Assange would not face the death penalty, saying the US had made an “unequivocal pledge not to charge any capital crimes.”
It could take months for the appeal to be heard.
Assange, 52, was not in court to hear the debate over his fate. Fitzgerald said he did not attend for health reasons.
But hundreds of protesters cheered outside the courthouse when news of the verdict arrived.
Assange has been fighting extradition for more than a decade, including seven years of self-exile at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, before being imprisoned at the maximum security Belmarsh prison on the outskirts of London, where he has been held for five years.
Assange was indicted in the US on 17 counts of espionage and one count of computer misuse over the publication of confidential documents by WikiLeaks.
American prosecutors alleged he put lives at risk when he helped US Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning steal diplomatic cables and military files that WikiLeaks published nearly 15 years ago.
US attorney James Lewis argued in writing that Assange’s actions “threatened harm to the strategic and national security interests of the United States” and put individuals named in the documents – including Iraqis and Afghans who helped US forces – at risk. of “serious physical harm”.
Assange’s lawyers have argued that he engaged in regular journalistic practices of obtaining and publishing confidential information and that the charge is politically motivated retaliation.
They said he could face up to 175 years in prison if convicted, although U.S. officials have said the sentence would likely be much shorter than that.
Assange’s many global supporters criticized the accusation and there were calls for the case to be dropped by human rights groups, some media outlets and political leaders, including Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
Website for submitting documents
Wikileaks, which he launched in 2006 as a place for leakers to release confidential documents, rose to prominence four years later when it published a confidential video provided by Manning.
Recorded in 2007, the video showed a US military helicopter killing civilians, including two Reuters journalists, in Baghdad. When a van arrived to pick up the injured, it was also shot. More than 10 people were killed.
Manning was convicted by court-martial of espionage and other charges in 2013 for leaking secret military files to WikiLeaks. She was sentenced to 35 years in prison but was released in 2017 after President Barack Obama commuted her sentence.
Assange’s legal problems began in 2010, when he was arrested in London at the request of Sweden, which wanted to question him over allegations of rape and sexual assault made by two women.
Two years later, he skipped bail and sought refuge at the Ecuadorian Embassy, which put him beyond the reach of authorities but effectively trapped him in the building.
After the relationship soured, he was evicted from the embassy in April 2019 and British police immediately arrested him for breaching bail in 2012. He has been in prison ever since, although Sweden dropped sex crime investigations in 2019 due to to the elapsed time.
Although a British district court judge ruled against the extradition request in 2021, citing a real and “overwhelming” risk of suicide, U.S. authorities won an appeal the following year after giving a series of assurances about how Assange would be. treated if he were extradited. This included the promise that he could be transferred to Australia to serve his sentence.
Earlier this year, the Australian parliament called for Assange to be allowed to return to his homeland. Authorities tried to pressure the US to abandon extradition efforts or find a diplomatic solution that would allow Assange to return to his homeland.
Australian authorities said the case had dragged on for too long and authorities had tried to lobby the US to abandon extradition efforts or find a diplomatic solution that would allow him to return.
Asked about Australia’s request last month, President Joe Biden said his administration was “considering it.”
This story originally appeared on NBCNews.com read the full story
