UK court rules today on WikiLeaks’ extradition of Julian Assange

London’s High Court will rule on Tuesday on whether WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange can appeal his extradition from Britain to the United States, in what could be his last legal challenge in a British court.

U.S. prosecutors want to put Assange, 52, on trial on criminal charges related to WikiLeaks’ high-profile leak of a trove of classified U.S. military records and diplomatic cables.

They believe the leak endangered their agent’s life and there is no excuse for his criminal conduct. Assange’s supporters hail him as a journalistic hero who has been prosecuted for exposing U.S. wrongdoing.

Britain approved his extradition in 2022, a decision he has since sought to overturn.

His first appeal against the transfer was rejected, leading to a two-day hearing last month when his lawyers sought to overturn the verdict.

Two senior judges are due to rule at 1030 GMT (4pm IST) on Tuesday.

If Assange wins, a full appeal hearing will be held to consider his challenge again. If he loses, his last option will be to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights.

“That’s it. Decision tomorrow,” his wife Stella Assange posted on X on Monday.

Julian Assange’s legal troubles began in 2010 and he spent seven years holed up inside the Ecuadorian embassy in London before being hauled out of prison and jailed in 2019 for breaching bail conditions. He has since been held in a high-security prison in south-east London and even had his wedding ceremony there.

At a hearing in February, Assange’s team argued that the prosecution was politically motivated and said he was targeted for exposing “state-level crimes.”

Former US President Donald Trump has asked for “detailed options” on how to kill him, they said.

U.S. attorneys said he was not being prosecuted for publishing the leaked materials, but for assisting and conspiring with former U.S. Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning to illegally obtain the materials and then disclose the names of the sources and “enable these individuals to At risk of serious harm.” “.

WikiLeaks first rose to prominence in 2010 when it released a U.S. military video showing a 2007 attack by Apache helicopters in Baghdad that killed more than a dozen people, including two Reuters news staff.

Last week, Assange’s U.S. lawyers said his legal team saw no signs of resolving the case against him after newspapers reported the U.S. Justice Department was considering allowing him to plead guilty to reduced charges.