May 20th 2024.
In a major development, Julian Assange, the founder of Wikileaks, has been granted permission to appeal against his extradition to the US on espionage charges by a London court. This legal battle has been ongoing for over a decade and the 52-year-old Australian national has been held at Belmarsh high-security prison in London since 2019, when he was taken into custody from the Ecuadorian Embassy where he had sought asylum.
The US authorities are seeking to bring Assange to trial for allegedly endangering lives by publishing thousands of classified documents on Wikileaks. However, his legal team has argued that the case against him is politically motivated. In light of this, two High Court judges at the Royal Courts of Justice have granted Assange permission to appeal against his extradition order.
During the hearing, Assange's barrister, Edward Fitzgerald, emphasized the principle of the separation of powers and asserted that the US court would apply US law, regardless of the executive's actions or statements. On the other hand, the barrister representing the US government, James Lewis, stated that their judicial branch would take into account the executive's assurance that Assange would not be discriminated against based on his nationality.
This ruling in favor of Assange means that he will be able to challenge the US's assurances in a full hearing, which will determine how his potential trial in America would be conducted and whether his right to free speech would be violated upon extradition. The appeal is expected to be heard next year, as Assange continues his fight against extradition after the UK government approved the order in June 2022.
Assange has maintained his innocence throughout the legal process and has argued that his disclosures in 2010 exposed war crimes committed by the US. His supporters, led by his wife Stella Assange, gathered outside the High Court and continued their calls for his release on medical grounds.
If the court had ruled in favor of the US, Assange would have exhausted all legal options in the UK. He has been fighting against extradition for over a decade after his website, Wikileaks, published confidential US documents in 2010 and 2011. The US Department of Justice has described these leaks as one of the largest compromises of classified information in the history of the United States.
The documents revealed that the US military had killed civilians in unreported incidents during the war in Afghanistan. The US authorities claim that Assange put lives at risk by not redacting the names of intelligence operatives in the documents. However, his lawyers argue that this case is a form of political retaliation by the state.
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