Julian Assange extradition ruling
Today, the 26th March 2024, Julian Assange learns whether he will be extradited to the United States or not after trying to overturn this for several years now.
Today the UK High Court gather to make a ruling and have now stated that the court is seeking assurances from the US and the appeal will be moved to 20 May. If no assurances are filed the appeal against extradition to the United States will be granted. As stated by the BBC.
The High Court has given the US government 3 weeks to give assurances to Julian Assange that he could rely on the First Amendment to the US Constitution, the protection of free speech. Also requested is assurances that Assange would not be prejudiced at trial or given a sentence based on his Australian nationality.
The Court has dismissed the argument that Assange was prosecuted due to political opinions.
This decision means that Assange will not be extradited immediately.
The Charges
Assange, 52, an Australian computer expert, has been indicted in the U.S. on 18 charges over Wikileaks’ publication of hundreds of thousands of classified documents in 2010.
According to the Economic Times, Julian Assange faces 17 counts of espionage and one charge of computer misuse. If convicted, his lawyers say he could receive a prison term of up to 175 years, though American authorities have said any sentence is likely to be much lower.
The argument against his imprisonment is that he was acting as a journalist to expose military wrongdoing and should therefore be protected under press freedoms guaranteed by the First Amendment to the U.S Constitution.
Julian Assange
Assange is an Australian editor, publisher and activist who founded Wikileaks in 2006.
Assange used WikiLeaks to release thousands of internal or classified documents from government and corporate entities. This included documents obtained from U.S. Army Intelligence relating to the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan which was criticised as a threat to U.S. National security.
From then Assange wound up as a high profile target often being labelled as a terrorist and placed on house arrest several times.
Assange has now been in Belmarsh prison in London since 2019 at the request of US authorities as in 2021 a district judge stated Assange should not be sent to a US prison at the risk of suicide.
