(London) It is a “dark day” for its supporters but “not the end of the road”: the British government announced on Friday that it had signed the decree for the extradition to the United States of the founder of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, who will call.
Posted at 6:23 a.m.
Updated at 8:42 a.m.
The 50-year-old Australian is being prosecuted in the United States for a massive leak of confidential documents.
After a long legal standoff with twists and turns, British justice had formally given the green light on April 20 to his surrender to American justice, but it was up to British Interior Minister Priti Patel to sign an extradition decree. , which she did on Friday.
“We are not at the end of the road. We will fight. We are going to use all the remedies”, reacted Stella Assange, the wife of the Australian, during a press conference.
Visibly moved, she explained that her husband had learned the news on Friday morning. “His instinct is to fight and so is mine,” she said.
At his side, lawyer Jennifer Robinson, who defends Julian Assange, confirmed that he would appeal to British justice within 14 days “and if necessary to the European Court of Human Rights”.
“We continue to call on the Biden administration to drop this case because of the grave threat it poses to free speech around the world and in the United States. And we continue to call on the Australian government to take action and protect this Australian citizen who is at risk,” added Ms.e Robinson.
The British Home Office validated the extradition of Julian Assange by considering that it was not “incompatible with his human rights, including his right to a fair trial and freedom of expression”, has explained a ministry spokesperson. He added that in the United States the Australian would be “treated appropriately, including in relation to his health”.
Press freedom organisations, including Reporters Without Borders and Amnesty International, oppose the extradition, fearing that despite assurances from the US authorities, Julian Assange will be subjected to conditions of solitary confinement in prison which would aggravate a suicide risk.
For Agnès Callamard, Secretary General of Amnesty International, the extradition of Julian Assange risks putting him “in great danger and would send a frightening message to journalists around the world”.
Legal battle
WikiLeaks denounced “a dark day for freedom of the press” and specified that Julian Assange would appeal to the High Court.
He is wanted by the American justice system, which wants to try him for the dissemination, from 2010, of more than 700,000 classified documents on American military and diplomatic activities, in particular in Iraq and Afghanistan. He faces 175 years in prison.
Mr Assange has been detained for three years in the high-security Belmarsh prison, near London, where he married Stella Moris in March.
They have two baby boys, conceived when Julian Assange was living at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. The founder of WikiLeaks spent seven years in this embassy where he had taken refuge in 2012, while he was on bail.
He then feared extradition to the United States, or Sweden where he was the subject of rape proceedings since abandoned.
He was finally arrested by British police in April 2019 and imprisoned.
His wife, a South African lawyer in her thirties, denounces a “political affair”.
But for her as for the supporters of the Australian, it “is not the end of the fight. This is just the start of a new legal battle”.
If leave to appeal is granted, the hearing may not take place until early 2023, Kate Goold, a partner at Bindmans law firm and specialist in extradition cases, told the PA agency.
Even if the appeal is refused, the extradition could be delayed for health reasons if Julian Assange “is too ill, for example, if he is not fit to fly”.
Mr. Assange “also has the possibility of appealing the decision to extradite on human rights grounds,” she said.
If he goes to the European Court of Human Rights, the process is likely to take several years.