The founder of Wikileaks Julian Assange, prosecuted for a massive leak of documents in the United States, saw the disappearance of one of his last hopes of avoiding his extradition, Monday March 14, with the refusal of the British Supreme Court to examine his appeal.
In this long-term legal tussle, the senior British magistrates considered that his appeal did not raise “no arguable point of law”explained a spokeswoman for the Supreme Court.
The 50-year-old Australian is being prosecuted by American justice for the dissemination, from 2010, of more than 700,000 classified documents on American military and diplomatic activities, particularly in Iraq and Afghanistan. Julian Assange faces 175 years in prison, in a case denounced by his supporters as a serious attack on press freedom.
Regretting the Supreme Court’s decision, the Wikileaks founder’s defense said the case would now return to trial court. The High Court ordered him to hand over the case to Home Secretary Priti Patel, who is responsible for the decision. An appeal on legal grounds that have not yet been examined remains possible, recalled the defense of Julian Assange.
In January 2021, British justice initially ruled in favor of the founder of Wikileaks. Invoking a risk of suicide, judge Vanessa Baraitser had refused to give the green light to the extradition of Julian Assange. Washington won a major victory in December, when the High Court overturned the decision, finding that the United States had provided assurances that addressed the judge’s concerns.
Julian Assange then obtained permission to appeal the High Court’s decision to the Supreme Court, which therefore refused to take up the matter.
Incarcerated in a high security prison near London for almost three years, Julian Assange was arrested by British police in April 2019, after spending seven years in the London embassy of Ecuador where he had taken refuge.