The U.S. government won an appeal in its quest to extradite WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, clearing an important hurdle in the battle to put him on trial on spying charges. As reported by the Wall Street Journal, the decision by the United Kingdom High Court to overturn a lower court ruling isn’t the end of […]
The U.S. government won an appeal in its quest to extradite WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, clearing an important hurdle in the battle to put him on trial on spying charges.
As reported by the Wall Street Journal, the decision by the United Kingdom High Court to overturn a lower court ruling isn’t the end of the case. Stella Moris, Assange’s fiancée, said in a statement that he and his team “will appeal the decision at the earliest possible moment.”
Lord Chief Justice Ian Burnett and Lord Justice Tim Holroyde said diplomatic assurances given by the U.S. that Assange wouldn’t be held under the strictest maximum-security conditions if extradited were enough to clear the way to extradition.
The High Court said Assange should remain in prison while the process continues.
Assange is wanted on 18 counts of conspiring to disclose classified information and conspiring to hack a military computer. The counts relate to the publication in 2010 and 2011 by WikiLeaks of a treasure trove of classified material that shed a bad light on the American campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Assange, who has been held in the United Kingdom’s high-security Belmarsh prison since 2019, has repeatedly defended his work as public-interest journalism.
