Julian Assange tries to obtain a last appeal from British justice against his extradition to the United States

His supporters have warned of the risks weighing on the life of the founder of Wikileaks, detained for almost five years in the United Kingdom, in a case erected as a symbol of the threats weighing on freedom of the press.

Julian Assange is trying to obtain a last resort from British justice. LBritish justice must examine, Tuesday February 20 and Wednesday February 21, the refusal to authorize the founder of Wikileaks to appeal his extradition to the United States, accepted in June 2022 by the government of Boris Johnson, where he should be tried for a massive leak of documents.

“If he loses, there is no longer any possibility of appealing” in the United Kingdom, his wife Stella Assange, with whom he had two children when he was holed up in the Ecuadorian embassy in the British capital, told the BBC on Monday. “We hope to have time to refer the matter to the European Court of Human Rights” to intervene, she stressed. If he is extradited, “he will die”she said last week.

As the hearing approached, his supporters warned of the risks weighing on the life of the 52-year-old Australian. He has been detained for almost five years in the United Kingdom, in a case that has become a symbol of the threats to press freedom.

In January 2021, British justice initially ruled in favor of the founder of Wikileaks. Citing a risk of suicide by Julian Assange, judge Vanessa Baraitser refused to give the green light to extradition. But this decision was later reversed.

He faces up to 175 years in prison

In an attempt to reassure him about the treatment that would be inflicted on him, the United States affirmed that he would not be incarcerated at the very high security ADX prison in Florence (Colorado), nicknamed the “Alcatraz of the Rockies”. The American authorities assure that he will receive the necessary clinical and psychological care. They also raised the possibility that he could ask to serve his sentence in Australia.

These guarantees convinced the British justice system, but not the supporters of Julian Assange, who denounce political prosecutions. He risks up to 175 years in prison for having published since 2010 more than 700,000 confidential documents on American military and diplomatic activities, particularly in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Among them was a video showing civilians, including two Reuters journalists, killed by fire from an American combat helicopter in Iraq in July 2007. These documents were obtained thanks to American soldier Chelsea Manning. Sentenced in August 2013 to 35 years in prison by a court martial, she was released after seven years following a sentence commuted by Barack Obama.