British Justice stops Assange’s extradition to the US and opens the door to a new appeal

The battle of the founder of Wikileaks, Julian Assange, to avoid being extradited to the United States, he will continue in the United Kingdom. The High Court of London ruled this Monday that the guarantees from the North American country are unsatisfactory and that, therefore, you will have a full appeal hearing.

In March, the High Court provisionally granted Assange, 52, permission to appeal on three grounds. However, it gave the United States the opportunity to offer satisfactory assurances that he would not seek the death penalty and would allow him to rely on the right to freedom of expression of the First Amendment if he is tried for espionage.

In a brief ruling, two senior judges declared that the US allegations were not sufficient and that they would allow the appeal to go forward, as reported Reuters.

[El abogado de Assange: “Si lo extraditan, EEUU podrá perseguir a periodistas por el mundo como a espías”]

Hundreds of protesters had gathered outside the court this morning ahead of a key ruling after 13 years of legal battles. The news was received outside the London building with cheers and songs of celebration. Assange’s legal team had previously said that If I lost I could be on a plane crossing the Atlantic in 24 hours.

Edward Fitzgerald, one of Assange’s lawyers, said in February that if his client were extradited, there was a “real risk that he would suffer a flagrant denial of justice.” criminalize the application of ordinary journalistic practices of obtaining and publishing truthful classified information of the most obvious and important public interest,” said the lawyer in a document collected by the newspaper Guardian.

In early 2021, a London judge initially blocked Assange’s transfer to the US on the grounds that it was probably committed suicide if he was held in the harsh American prison conditions. However, the government of the North American country appealed the decision to the Supreme Court and won the appeal, so the magistrate’s decision was annulled. A year later, in June 2022, the British government approved the extradition of Assange to the United States, although this decision was appealed.

In addition to his legal battle in British justice, Assange could escape US courts in another way. US President Joe Bidensaid in April that is considering ending legal proceedings against WikiLeaks founder. “We are considering it,” Biden said in statements to the press at the White House when asked about the request that Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has been making for months to close the case against Assange.