British court postpones extradition of WikiLeaks founder Assange to the US

On Tuesday, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was granted permission by a British court to appeal his extradition to the United States, where he is wanted on espionage charges. Therefore, Assange will not be extradited yet. This was reported by CNBS News, according to UNN.

Details

The decision of the High Court of London means that Assange will have the opportunity to seek a new extradition hearing unless the United States provides "satisfactory assurances" on certain aspects of his appeal.

The court said it would give the United States three weeks to provide assurances that Assange is allowed to rely on the First Amendment to the US Constitution, that he will not be disadvantaged in court because of his citizenship, that he will be afforded the same protections as a US citizen, and that he will not be sentenced to death.

The next hearing was scheduled for May 20.

Assange, 52, has been fighting extradition for more than a decade. During this time, he spent seven years in exile at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, and the last almost five years in London's maximum security Belmarsh prison.

US prosecutors are seeking to bring Assange to trial after WikiLeaks published hundreds of thousands of confidential military files and diplomatic documents related to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Assange is facing 18 charges, including conspiracy to hack into government computers and violating the Espionage Act. In the United States, he faces up to 175 years in prison on espionage charges.

Addendum

WikiLeaks gained international notoriety in 2010 when it published a video of a 2007 Apache helicopter attack by U.S. forces in Baghdad that killed two Reuters journalists.

Since this high-profile publication, the site has published hundreds of thousands of other classified files, releasing information that has often embarrassed Washington.

WSJ: Assange may avoid extraditionMar 20 2024, 10:46 PM • 31467 views