The first of two days of the latest appeal hearing began on February 20 in London to decide whether or not WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange can appeal his extradition to the United States.
Act of support for Assange in Brussels in front of the British Embassy, this Monday. (Photo: EFE)
Julian Assange's lawyers launched what could be their last legal action in the UK on Tuesday, seeking to prevent the WikiLeaks portal founder from being sent to the US to face espionage charges. The extradition was approved by the British authorities in 2022.
For health reasons, Assange did not appear at the High Court in London on February 20th. His wife Stella Assange had already warned last week that his health was “deteriorating physically and mentally”, information confirmed by his lawyer Edward Fitzgerald and one of the judges in the case who allowed Assange to leave Belmarsh Prison, where he has been held for five years.
The hearing before two senior judges will last two days. If successful, your case will be fully contested. If he loses, the only remaining obstacle to his extradition lies with the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), where he has already filed an application that could stop or postpone his extradition.
Assange's defense team believes that if he is extradited, he could be held in a maximum security prison in the United States and could face a prison sentence of 175 years if convicted.
Facing the threat of a hefty sentence, Stella Assange fears her husband will commit suicide and his supporters say “freedom of expression would die” if he were extradited.
The American authorities want to bring the Australian editor to justice because he used his Wikileaks portal to reveal American military secrets about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, secrets that exposed the excesses of the first power, including against civilians.
“The United States is seeking to convict Julian Assange under the Espionage Act of 1917,” said John Rees, founder of the Free Assange Campaign. “If they get their way, they will have succeeded in redefining journalism as espionage,” he added.
Assange was arrested by British police at the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where he had remained hidden since 2012 to avoid capture by Swedish authorities who demanded his handover over alleged sexual abuse. These allegations were later withdrawn.
But since his arrest in the Ecuadorian embassy, Assange's most difficult legal phase began. On April 11, 2019, the political asylum that Ecuador had initially granted Assange was revoked and Assange was arrested.
In June 2019, the US Department of Justice formally asked the United Kingdom to extradite him to its territory, where he faces 18 counts of conspiracy and violating the North American country's espionage laws.
Since then, Assange has been in the high-security Belmarsh prison awaiting extradition hearings.
“We have two big days ahead of us. We don't know what to expect. They need to know that they can't get away with it. “Julian needs his freedom and we all need the truth.” These were the words of Assange's wife, who gathered with supporters of the Australian in front of the High Court in London, where Assange is playing his final cards.
(With information from agencies)
