British justice on Tuesday asked the United States for new guarantees regarding the treatment that would be reserved for Julian Assange, without which it would grant the founder of Wikileaks a last appeal in the United Kingdom against his extradition.
The judges gave three weeks to the American authorities, who want to try the 52-year-old Australian for a massive leak of confidential documents, to provide these guarantees. They want to ensure that in the United States, Julian Assange can benefit from the First Amendment of the American Constitution which protects freedom of expression, and that he would not be sentenced to the death penalty, according to a summary of the judgment .
“If these assurances are not provided” within this deadline, Julian Assange will be able to appeal the decision to extradite him, granted in June 2022 by the British government, judges Victoria Sharp and Jeremy Johnson decided.
If they are, a new hearing will be held on May 20 before the judges decide whether they find these guarantees satisfactory, to decide whether or not Julian Assange can benefit from a last resort in the United Kingdom, in a case which has become a symbol of threats against press freedom.
Julian Assange’s supporters had in any case warned in the event of defeat that they would refer the case to the European Court of Human Rights in the hope of having the extradition suspended.
Julian Assange 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 is a video showing civilians, including two Reuters journalists, killed by fire from an American combat helicopter in Iraq in July 2007.
Julian Assange was arrested by British police in 2019 after seven years spent in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, in order to avoid extradition to Sweden in a rape investigation, dismissed the same year.
Degraded health
Many voices have urged US President Joe Biden to drop the 18 charges against Mr. Assange during Donald Trump’s first term, under a 1917 espionage law.
In recent weeks, those close to Julian Assange, detained for five years in the high security Belmarsh prison in London, have warned of the deterioration of his state of health.
His defense also highlights a risk of suicide in the event of extradition.
Suffering, he was absent from the February hearings.
During these two days of debates, Julian Assange’s lawyers tried to convince the magistrates that these proceedings against him were “political”, and that extradition would put his health and even his life in danger.
The Australian is being prosecuted for “ordinary journalistic practices” consisting of “obtaining and publishing information”, argued his lawyer Edward Fitzgerald.
Lawyer Clair Dobbin, who represents the American government, for her part argued that Mr. Assange had “indiscriminately and knowingly published the names of individuals who served as sources of information for the United States “.
“It is these facts that distinguish it (from other media), and not its political opinions,” she argued.
In January 2021, British justice initially ruled in favor of the founder of WikiLeaks. Citing a risk of suicide, judge Vanessa Baraitser refused to give the green light to extradition. But this decision was later reversed.
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”, and that he would receive the necessary clinical and psychological care.
The Americans had also raised the possibility that he could ask to serve his sentence in Australia.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese recently denounced the prosecution of Mr. Assange by the American justice system, and the Australian Parliament adopted a motion calling for an end to it.