LONDON — The host of a press conference on WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s extradition fight ironically welcomed journalists last week to the “millionth” press conference on his court case.
Deborah Bonetti, head of the Foreign Press Association, was only half joking. Assange’s legal saga has dragged on for more than a decade, but could come to an end in the UK on Monday.
Assange faces a hearing at London’s High Court that could end him being sent to the United States to face espionage charges or give him another chance to appeal his extradition.
The outcome will depend on how much weight the judges give to assurances that U.S. officials have given that Assange’s rights will not be trampled if he is tried.
Here’s a look at the case:
Assange, 52, an Australian computer expert, has been charged in the United States with 18 counts over Wikileaks’ publication of hundreds of thousands of classified documents in 2010.
Prosecutors say he conspired with U.S. Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning to hack a Pentagon computer and release secret diplomatic cables and military files on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
He faces 17 counts of espionage and one count of computer misuse. If he is convicted, his lawyers say he could receive a prison sentence of up to 175 years, although US authorities have said any sentence is likely to be much less.
Assange and his supporters argue that he acted as a journalist to expose wrongdoing by the US military and that he is protected by the freedom of the press guaranteed by the First Amendment of the US Constitution.
Among the files released by WikiLeaks was a video of a 2007 Apache helicopter attack by US forces in Baghdad that killed 11 people, including two Reuters journalists.
“Julian has been charged with receiving, possessing and communicating to the public information about evidence of war crimes committed by the United States government,” said his wife, Stella Assange. “Reporting a crime is never a crime.”
US lawyers say Assange is guilty of attempting to hack the Pentagon computer and that the WikiLeaks publications created a “serious and imminent risk” to US intelligence sources in Afghanistan and Iraq.
While the US criminal case against Assange was not revealed until 2019, his freedom has been restricted for a dozen years.
Assange took refuge in Ecuador’s embassy in London in 2012 and was granted political asylum after courts in England ruled he should be extradited to Sweden as part of a rape investigation in the Scandinavian country.
He was arrested by British police after the Ecuadorian government withdrew his asylum status in 2019 and later jailed for jumping bail when he first took refuge inside the embassy.
Although Sweden eventually dropped its sex crimes investigation because too much time had passed, Assange remained in London’s high-security Belmarsh prison as his extradition battle with the United States continues.
His wife said his physical and mental health has deteriorated behind bars.
“He’s fighting to survive and that’s a daily battle,” she said.
A London judge initially blocked Assange’s transfer to the United States in 2021, saying he was likely to commit suicide if held in harsh American prison conditions.
But subsequent courts paved the way for the measure after US authorities assured him that he would not suffer the harsh treatment that his lawyers said would put his physical and mental health at risk.
The British government authorized Assange’s extradition in 2022.
Assange’s lawyers raised nine grounds of appeal at a hearing in February, including the charge that his prosecution is political.
The court accepted three of his arguments and issued a provisional ruling in March that said Assange could take his case to the Court of Appeals unless the United States guaranteed that he would not face the death penalty if extradited and would have the same freedom protections. of expression than a US citizen. citizen.
The United States provided those assurances three weeks later, although its supporters remain skeptical.
Stella Assange said the “so-called guarantees” were made up of “weasel words.”
WikiLeaks editor-in-chief Kristinn Hrafnsson said the judges had asked whether Assange could rely on First Amendment protections.
“It should be an easy yes or no question,” Hrafnsson said. “The response was, ‘You can try to rely on the protections of the First Amendment.’ That is a no’. So the only rational decision on Monday is for the judges to come out and say, “This is not good enough.” “Anything else is a judicial scandal.”
If Assange wins, it would set the stage for an appeals process that is likely to drag out the case even further.
If an appeal is rejected, his legal team plans to ask the European Court of Human Rights to intervene. But his supporters fear Assange could be transferred before the court in Strasbourg, France, can stop his removal.
“Julián is just one decision away from being extradited,” his wife said.
Assange, who expects to appear in court on Monday, is encouraged by the work others have done in the political fight to free him, his wife said.
If you lose in court, you may still have another chance at freedom.
President Joe Biden said last month he was considering a request from Australia to drop the case and allow Assange to return to his home country.
Authorities have no further details, but Stella Assange said it was “a good sign” and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the comment was encouraging.
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