26-3-2024 (LONDON) In a pivotal court ruling, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has gained a lifeline to continue fighting his prospective extradition to the United States on espionage charges related to the whistleblowing website’s mass release of classified military and diplomatic files.
The High Court in London delivered a reprieve to the 52-year-old Australian on Monday, stating that American authorities must provide further assurances over the prosecution’s scope and potential sentencing before extradition proceedings can advance.
Assange’s legal team had petitioned to appeal Britain’s initial approval of his transfer to US custody, arguing the case was inherently politically motivated. The two presiding judges granted that appeal a “real prospect” of success on multiple grounds.
Crucially, the court demanded Washington clarify whether Assange would be permitted to invoke free speech protections under the First Amendment of the US Constitution at trial. It also sought iron-clad guarantees that he would not face execution if convicted, despite US prosecutors publicly disavowing any intent to pursue capital punishment.
“The court has given the US authorities an opportunity to provide ‘satisfactory assurances’ on the questions of whether he was able to rely on the First Amendment…and whether he could be subject to the death penalty,” the ruling stated. “If those assurances are not forthcoming, then Assange will be granted permission to appeal.”
A further hearing on the matter was scheduled for May 20th, granting US officials a window to address the judges’ concerns over constitutional freedoms and sentencing.
“If you expose the interests that are driving war, they will come after you, they will put you in prison, and they will try to kill you.”
Stella Assange outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London today. pic.twitter.com/jqGVtrkVJR
— Robin Monotti (@robinmonotti) March 26, 2024
The decision represents a hard-won reprieve for the controversial publisher, who has spent over a decade either confined in Ecuador’s London embassy or incarcerated while fighting extradition to America. US prosecutors have levied 18 charges against him, predominantly under the Espionage Act, over WikiLeaks’ 2010 publications leaking hundreds of thousands of classified US documents related to the Iraq and Afghan wars.
While American officials have decried Assange’s actions as recklessly jeopardising intelligence sources’ lives with no justification, his global support network has rallied behind him as a campaigner for truth being persecuted for exposing alleged US wrongdoing and war crimes.
As that polarising debate rages on diplomatic and freedom of speech battlegrounds worldwide, British courts have provided Assange a temporary legal foothold to mount further resistance against standing trial in the US on charges carrying up to 175 years’ imprisonment.
