(London) The British Supreme Court on Monday refused to hear WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s appeal against a decision authorizing his extradition to the United States, which wants to try him for a massive leak of documents.
Posted at 1:14 p.m.
The appeal did not raise “any questionable point of law”, explained a spokeswoman for the Supreme Court.
The case will now go to Home Secretary Priti Patel, WikiLeaks said on Twitter.
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, in particular in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Prosecuted in particular under legislation against espionage, he risks 175 years in prison, in a case denounced as a serious attack on the freedom of the press by his supporters.
In January 2021, British justice initially ruled in favor of the founder of WikiLeaks. Invoking a risk of suicide of Julian Assange, judge Vanessa Baraitser had refused to give the green light to the extradition.
But Washington scored a major victory in December, when the High Court overturned that decision, finding the United States had provided assurances that addressed the judge’s concerns.
Julian Assange then obtained permission on January 24 to appeal against the High Court’s decision to the Supreme Court, which therefore refused to take up the case.