A British court on Monday is due to make a final decision on whether WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange should be extradited to the United States over the leak of a trove of classified US documents, culminating 13 years of legal battles and detention.
Two judges at the High Court in London are set to decide whether to believe US assurances that Assange will not face the death penalty and that he can rely on his First Amendment right to free speech if he is charged with espionage in the US.
Assange’s legal team says there are three options, he could either be on a plane on his way across the Atlantic within 24 hours of the verdict, released from prison or stuck again in months of legal battles.
WikiLeaks released hundreds of thousands of classified US military documents on Washington’s wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as a number of diplomatic cables, the largest security breach of its kind in the history of the US military.
In April 2010, he released a classified video showing a 2007 US helicopter strike that killed a dozen people in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, including two Reuters journalists.
US authorities want to bring Australian-born Assange to trial on 18 charges, almost all under the Espionage Act, arguing that his actions with WikiLeaks were reckless, harmed national security and endangered the lives of agents.
His many global supporters call the indictment a parody, an attack on journalism and freedom of speech, and revenge for national embarrassment. Human rights groups and some media outlets, as well as Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and other political leaders, called for the case to be dismissed.
If the High Court rules that extradition can go ahead, Assange’s legal avenues in the UK have been exhausted, and his lawyers will immediately apply to the European Court of Human Rights to seek an urgent deportation order until that court decides to hear all sides of his case.
On the other hand, if the judges reject the US request, then he will be able to appeal the extradition on three grounds, which could not be on the agenda until next year.
It is also possible that the judges will decide that Monday’s hearing should consider not only whether an appeal can be made, but also what the content of that appeal might be. If they rule in his favor under such circumstances, he could be released, Hina writes.
