LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM - OCTOBER 23, 2021: Demonstrators march through central London in solidarity with Julian Assange ahead of next week's US extradition appeal hearing at the High Court on October 23, 2021 in London, England.
WIktor Szymanowicz via Reuters Connect
A British court has ruled that Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has the right to appeal his extradition to the United States on espionage charges. The British judges said they did not find assurances from US courts credible when it came to his rights under the First Amendment. This means he likely won't be immediately deported if his extradition is nonetheless ordered at his next hearing, the date of which has not been scheduled.
Assange was indicted in the US in 2018 on 18 charges for the publication of classified documents through Wikileaks, an activist organization he founded in 2006. Assange claims he acted as a journalist exposing US military wrongdoing, while prosecutors counter that he conspired to hack a Pentagon computer and endangered intelligence sources.
Since then, the native Australian has been in “one form of detention or another,” according to his wife Stella Assange, including Britain’s high-security Belmarsh prison since 2019. If he loses his bid to avoid extradition, Assange’s legal team may appeal to the European Court of Human Rights. US President Joe Biden is also reportedly considering an Australian request to drop the case.