Julian Assange will not be immediately extradited, UK court rules
3 Min Read
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange gains further opportunity to resist extradition to the United States, with his hearing now scheduled for May 20th.
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Stella Assange, wife of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, releases a statement outside the Royal Courts of Justice, in London, on Tuesday, March 26, 2024. (AP)
WikiLeaks' Julian Assange was given the chance on Tuesday to fight against extradition to the United States after the High Court in London reported that the US needed to give more assurances.
US prosecutors are making an effort to put Assange on trial on 18 counts, all bar one under the Espionage Act, over WikiLeaks' high-profile publication of confidential US military records and diplomatic cables.
Assange's lawyers sought permission in February to challenge Britain's approval of his extradition to the US, arguing his prosecution was politically motivated. In their ruling, two senior judges said he had a real prospect of successfully appealing against extradition on several grounds.
The court has permitted US authorities to offer "satisfactory assurances" regarding Julian Assange's ability to invoke the protections of the First Amendment of the US Constitution and his potential exposure to the death penalty.
Assange will be granted permission to appeal if those assurances are not forthcoming. That said, a further hearing has been scheduled for May 20.
The US argues that WikiLeaks' disclosures endangered the lives of their operatives and asserts that there is no justification for Julian Assange's alleged criminal actions.
Assange's court struggle
Assange is facing a lengthy court struggle with the British government to prevent extradition to the United States to face trial for publishing thousands of sensitive US military data and diplomatic cables in 2010. He was charged by US prosecutors in 2019 and has been captured in London since.
During the February hearings, Assange's team claimed that the prosecution was politically motivated and that he was being pursued for exposing "state-level crimes," in addition to revelations that former US President Donald Trump had sought "detailed options" on how to assassinate Assange.
His lawyers have maintained that he only published material provided to him as any journalist would and therefore is not guilty.
Chelsea Manning, a former US Army intelligence analyst who was convicted of leaking government secrets to WikiLeaks, spent seven years in jail. According to legal experts, any term for Assange would most likely be shorter than Manning served.
Assange extradition breaches US-UK extradition treaty
Last month, Edward Snowden, former US National Security Agency contractor and whistleblower, said that the potential extradition of Assange to the United States by UK authorities would constitute a breach of the US-UK extradition treaty.
"The outrageous part of the UK's years-long 'trial' to condemn Julian Assange to die in an American dungeon is that the victim of his 'crime' [journalism] is a state rather than a person — the definition of a political offense, which the US-UK extradition treaty explicitly forbids," Snowden wrote on X.
To every political leader and journalist making and writing speeches: You can't save Navalny. You *can* still save Assange. If you're silent here, when and where you can actually influence the outcome, you were never standing up for principles—you were just hoping for applause. https://t.co/RRPSoAgiGe
— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) February 20, 2024
Read next: Julian Assange's prosecution threatens global media freedom: IEJ, EFJ
