Julian Assange suspended by new court decision on his extradition

The British High Court examines on Monday the conditions of the extradition requested by the United States. Washington has been pursuing Julian Assange since the publication of confidential information on his site 14 years ago. In particular, he revealed war crimes.

A political prisoner, that’s how Julian Assange’s closest supporters define him. The fate of the WikiLeaks founder is being played out again on Monday in London: two judges must decide whether to grant him a new appeal against his extradition to the United States, which wants to try him for a massive leak of documents.

In his cell at Belmarsh Prison in London, a high security establishment, the 52-year-old Australian is not serving any sentence, as he has never been convicted. These five years of legal battle in the United Kingdom, erected as a symbol of the fight for freedom of information by its supporters, aim only to prevent him from being extradited to the United States, where he risks ending his days behind bars. bars. His only hope would then be to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights in time to have his extradition suspended.

Stella, his wife, does not hide her fatigue, her exhaustion even in the face of what she describes as judicial relentlessness. “This has been going on for more than five years. Julian has been held in Britain’s most notorious prison for all that time. For the previous seven years, he was a refugee in the Ecuadorian embassy after a year and a half under house arrest,” she recalls.

“Every day since December 7, 2010, he has spent in some form of detention.”

Stella Assange

at franceinfo

“This date is seven days after the publication on WikiLeaks of the first diplomatic cables,” specifies his wife.

Before ruling, the High Court requested guarantees from the United States, in particular on the fact that Julian Assange cannot be sentenced to death. If the American documents and arguments hit the mark, the extradition will be validated and there will no longer be any possible appeal in the United Kingdom. Julian Assange could be put on a plane to the United States within 24 hours.

His camp will try an appeal before the European Court of Human Rights. Without guarantee on the result, or even on the admissibility of this appeal by the ECHR. Prosecuted for having made public from 2010 more than 700,000 confidential documents on American military and diplomatic activities, particularly in Iraq and Afghanistan, the founder of WikiLeaks faces up to 175 years in prison in the United States.