'Beginning of the end' as Assange case returns to court
Since 2019, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been held in prison maximum security prison in south-east London as his lawyers fight a US extradition warrant. Now that particular battle may be nearing its end.
On Tuesday and Wednesday, Assange's case returns to a British court for a two-day hearing that will determine whether he has exhausted his right to appeal within Britain and whether he can move one step closer to being deployed to the United States .
In America, Assange, 52, faces charges under the 1917 Espionage Act that could carry a prison sentence of up to 175 years, his lawyers say, although US government lawyers had previously said he was more likely to to be continued. sentenced to four to six years in prison. Here's what you need to know about the long-running legal battle over his extradition and what could happen next.
Assange has been in a British prison for almost five years. This is why.
The US charges against Assange date back to events in 2010, when WikiLeaks published tens of thousands of classified military and diplomatic documents leaked by Chelsea Manning, an army intelligence analyst.
The files exposed hidden diplomatic transactions and contained revelations about civilian deaths in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
In May 2019, during Trump's presidency, the US Department of Justice charged Mr Assange violating the Espionage Act by soliciting and publishing classified government information, allegations that raise profound First Amendment issues. (The Obama administration had considered indicting Assange, but decided against it because of the threat to press freedom.)
While Mr Assange has spent years battling attempts to extradite him from Britain to face US charges, his life in limbo in London goes back even further.
In June 2012, Mr Assange entered the Ecuadorian embassy in London to avoid extradition to Sweden, where he faced an investigation into unrelated allegations of sexual misconduct and rape, which were later dropped. He remained in the embassy for the next seven years.
This hearing is the “beginning of the end” of the extradition cases in British courts, Assange's team says.
The extradition warrant for Mr Assange was initially rejected by a British judge who ruled in January 2021 that Assange was at risk of suicide if sent to a US prison. The British Supreme Court later reversed that decision after assurances from US officials about his treatment. Priti Patel, Britain's then Home Secretary, approved the extradition request in 2022.
But the legal challenges continued. Mr. Assange's legal team had an earlier application to appeal Ms Patel's order rejected by a single judge. Now two High Court judges will hear his latest bid for an appeal to a British court.
Assange's legal team will present its case on Tuesday, followed by the legal team from the US Department of Justice. The judges will then review the case – which could take hours, days or weeks – before announcing their decision.
And there are a few possible outcomes. The judges could allow Mr Assange to appeal his extradition order, in which case a full appeal hearing would be scheduled, opening the door for a new decision on his extradition.
Or, if Assange's request to appeal is denied, he could be quickly sent to a plane bound for the United States, his legal team said. But his lawyers have vowed to fight his extradition at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France.
Theoretically, that could block his extradition from Britain until the case is heard in Strasbourg, because Britain is obliged to follow the court's ruling as a signatory to the agreement. European Convention on Human Rights.
The trial has taken its toll on Mr. Assange's health. And rights groups expressed fear about what comes next.
Stella Assange, Assange's wife, said at a press conference last week that her husband, who suffers from depression, has aged prematurely during his years in prison, and she fears for his mental and physical health.
“Every day he is in prison his life is in danger, and if he is extradited, he will die,” she said. The pair, who began a relationship while Mr Assange was living in the Ecuadorian embassy, have two children and regularly visit Mr Assange in prison.
'Julian and I protect the children. They honestly don't know,” Ms. Assange said of the charges against him. “And I don't think it's fair to them to know what's going on.”
Alice Jill Edwards, the United Nations special rapporteur on torture, has urged Britain to halt Assange's extradition, citing fears that if extradited he would risk treatment amounting to to torture or other forms of punishment. In a statement earlier this month she pointed out the risk that he could face “prolonged solitary confinement, despite his precarious mental health status, and that he could receive a potentially disproportionate sentence.”
The Australian government has also called for Mr Assange, an Australian citizen, to be sent to his home country, where parliament passed a motion last week calling for before his release. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he had discussed the issue at a meeting with President Biden last fall, and on Thursday Mr Albanese told the Australian parliament: “It is appropriate that we put forward our very strong view that those countries should take into account the It is necessary that this is completed.”
Rights groups such as Amnesty International and press freedom advocates, including Reporters Without Borders, have long called for US charges against Assange to be dropped and the extradition order canceled.
Rebecca Vincent, the director of international campaigns for Reporters Without Borders, said in a statement ahead of the hearing that the US could withdraw the extradition request or consider Assange's time in Belmarsh prison as time served.
“None of this is inevitable,” Ms. Vincent said in a statement ahead of the hearing. “No one should have to suffer such treatment when publishing information in the public interest.”