Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, has appealed the decision made by the UK to extradite him to the US, where he is facing charges of espionage, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.

Critics say that the whistleblower's extradition to the US is on par with a death sentence, as plots by the US have come to light wherein it became clear that Washington was planning to assassinate Assange.

Amnesty International warned that the extradition of Julian Assange to the US would put him at great risk and sends a chilling message to journalists the world over.

Agnes Callamard, the Amnesty International Secretary General said earlier in June: “If the extradition proceeds, Amnesty International is extremely concerned that Assange faces a high risk of prolonged solitary confinement, which would violate the prohibition on torture or other ill-treatment. Diplomatic assurances provided by the US that Assange will not be kept in solitary confinement cannot be taken on face value given the previous history”.

According to the lawyer, Assange filed two appeals to the UK high court on Thursday in an effort to prevent his extradition.

This new legal dispute may last for months and may delay his extradition to the US.

Plans to assassinate Assange

In 2017, former US State Secretary Mike Pompeo and former CIA Director Gina Haspel reportedly explored various ways to carry out a "rendition" to capture Assange from the Ecuadorian Embassy in London and then transport him to a third country, which would eventually hand him over to the US.

The CIA's reported plans were pushed forward after the American intelligence community was informed of a Russian alleged plan to bust Assange out of the UK. 

In response, the US spy agency started planning ways to intercept the whistleblower, which included crashing a car into a Russian diplomatic vehicle carrying the man, shooting out the tires of a Russian plane with the journalist on board, or outright starting a gunfight on London's streets with Kremlin operatives, the Yahoo investigator team claimed. 

The US authorities were so desperate for the Russians not to put their hands on Assange that they were willing to assassinate him. 

The CIA's plans didn't go through because of several reasons, including American officials who strongly objected to the assassination plan, precisely officials in the National Security Council.