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.

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange is trying, from Tuesday February 20, to obtain from the British justice system a last appeal against his extradition to the United States, which wants to try him for a massive leak of documents. As the hearing approaches, his supporters warned of the risks weighing on the life of the 52-year-old Australian, 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.

“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.

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.

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” 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.

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 and is being prosecuted 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.