Between 2018 and 2020, the United States prosecuted Julian Assange multiple times. (document)
London:
Two British judges on Tuesday delayed a decision on whether to grant WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s final appeal against extradition to the United States, giving Washington three weeks to provide “guarantees” in the case.
The United States wants the 52-year-old Australian citizen to stand trial over WikiLeaks’ 2010 release of hundreds of thousands of secret military and diplomatic documents related to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
He has suffered a series of court losses in a protracted legal battle to stop the process, which his supporters see as a battle for media freedom.
But after two days of evidence last month, the London judge said three of Assange’s nine grounds of appeal had “a real prospect of success”.
Victoria Sharp and Jeremy Johnson gave Washington three weeks to provide new assurances, fearing he would be prejudiced at trial because he is not a U.S. citizen and could face the death penalty if convicted .
“We will provide the defendant with an opportunity to give assurances before making a final decision on the application for leave to appeal,” the pair wrote in their 66-page ruling.
“If no assurances are given then we will allow the appeal without a further hearing.
“If assurances are given then we will give all parties an opportunity to make further comments before making a final decision.”
“dishonest”
Assange has been held in a high-security London prison since 2019 and did not attend the latest ruling, which was released online rather than at a hearing.
His lawyer said at the time that he was absent from court on two days in February and did not follow the proceedings via video because of illness.
If the WikiLeaks founder ultimately loses the case, he will exhaust all UK appeals and will enter extradition proceedings.
However, his team has previously said they will ask the European Court of Justice to intervene and give them 14 days.
The United States prosecuted Assange multiple times between 2018 and 2020, but President Joe Biden has been facing domestic and international pressure to drop proceedings brought by his predecessor, Donald Trump.
Major media organizations, press freedom advocates and Australia’s parliament have condemned the prosecution under the Espionage Act of 1917, which was never used to publish classified information.
Washington claims Assange and others at WikiLeaks recruited and agreed with hackers to carry out “one of the largest leaks of classified information” in U.S. history.
At a hearing last month, U.S. government lawyers argued the case on a variety of legal grounds.
legal legend
Assange’s lawyers said the charges were “political in nature” and that he was being prosecuted for “engaging in ordinary journalistic work in obtaining and publishing confidential information.”
They also argued that the decades-long prison sentence he faced if convicted was “disproportionate” and that Washington acted in “malice” and breached its extradition treaty with the UK.
Before being jailed, Assange spent seven years hiding in Ecuador’s London embassy to avoid extradition to Sweden, where he faced sexual assault charges that were later dropped.
The High Court had blocked his extradition but overturned that decision on appeal in 2021 after the United States vowed not to hold him in its most extreme prison, ADX Florence.
It also promised not to subject him to a harsh regime known as “special administrative measures” and allow him to eventually serve his sentence in Australia.
In March 2022, the UK Supreme Court refused to allow the appeal, holding that Assange failed to “raise a controversial legal point”.
Months later, former home minister Priti Patel formally approved his extradition.
Assange is seeking permission to review the decision and a 2021 appeal ruling.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
