WIKILEAKS FOUNDER JULIAN ASSANGE’S LAWYERS SEEK UK APPEAL AGAINST US EXTRADITION

Fri 24 December 2021:

After a lower court ruled this month that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange can be extradited to the United States on spying charges, his legal team has filed an application to appeal to Britain’s Supreme Court.

The lawyers filed an appeal on Thursday, arguing that the US government’s promise that the founder of the whistleblowing website would not be subjected to harsh prison conditions was conditional and could be changed at the discretion of US authorities.

A decision is unlikely to be made before the third week of January, according to Stella Moris, a lawyer and the mother of Assange’s two children. The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom is the country’s highest court of appeal.

WikiLeaks’ release of vast troves of confidential US military records and diplomatic cables relating to the country’s wars in Afghanistan and Iraq has been accused by US authorities of putting lives in danger.

On December 10, Assange moved a step closer to facing criminal charges in the United States after Washington won an appeal in London’s High Court against his extradition.

The court said it was satisfied with assurances about Assange’s detention conditions, including a promise not to hold him at the “supermax” penitentiary in Florence, Colorado, the country’s most secure prison, or under “special administrative measures” such as isolation, which could worsen his mental condition.

If convicted, US authorities have also said that Assange, who was born in Australia, could be transferred to Australia to serve his sentence.

The High Court decision overturned a previous decision by a British magistrates’ court that extraditing him to the US justice system would be “oppressive” due to his mental health and risk of suicide.

In the United States, Assange could face a sentence of up to 175 years in prison, though the exact sentence is difficult to predict.

He’s been in custody since 2019, despite serving a previous sentence for violating bail conditions in a separate case, and spent seven years at Ecuador’s embassy in London to avoid being extradited to Sweden to face sexual assault charges that were later dropped.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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