British Court Rules On Julian Assange

Julian Assange 

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is not being extradited to the United States anytime soon. Assange will have the chance to fight extradition in the UK without assurances that he will not be executed in the US. The High Court of London gave this order on Tuesday (26 March). 

The US Department of Justice is investigating 18 cases against Assange, 52. He is accused of leaking secret documents. Among these were highly classified US military and diplomatic matters.

Assange, 52 year old Australian citizen has been for five years in London’s Belmarsh Prison and battling against his extradition to the US, where he is wanted on criminal charges over the release of confidential military records and diplomatic cables in 2010. 

The UK government approved Assange's extradition to the US last February. Assange's lawyers appealed to the High Court against this decision. They said the case against Assange was politically motivated.

In the latest order, two senior judges of the High Court of London said Assange had the opportunity to appeal against extradition on several grounds.

In a written order, the court said, as Assange is not a citizen of the United States, he is not entitled to the right to freedom of expression under the First Amendment of the Constitution. Apart from this, he may be charged with the death penalty at a later date. His extradition would therefore be illegal.

Assange will be granted leave to appeal if there is no assurance on these matters. The court has set the date for the next hearing on May 20. The issue of his extradition has been stalled for the time being.

Read more: Julian Assange's Two Sons Saw Him In Belmarsh Prison

Assange is a journalist of Australian origin, co-founder of the journalistic and dissemination organization WikiLeaks. 

The WikiLeaks platform itself, since 2006, has released documents with news regarding the irregularities of various governments such as corruption and war crimes. 

In 2010 WikiLeaks published thousands of classified documents regarding war crimes committed by the USA in various wars. Jailed in 2019 in the United Kingdom on a controversial rape charge in Sweden, he was later accused by the United States of conspiracy. 

In addition to the already discussed reasons for his imprisonment, what is being discussed are the methods of the journalist's imprisonment, considered by many to be seriously harmful. 

The risk of extradition to the United States hangs over Assange's head, even though the UN and the Council of Europe have already asked that the journalist not be extradited.

Read more: The City of Bologna in Italy grants honorary citizenship to Julian Assange