Julian Assange WINS right to appeal extradition to US in Supreme Court
Julian Assange WINS latest round of US extradition battle: High Court rules WikiLeaks founder can seek appeal at Supreme Court over decision to send him to America where he faces 175-year jail term if found guilty of hacking
Assange wanted in US for allegedly conspiring to hack secret Pentagon systemHis lawyers are trying to strike down extradition due to him being a ‘suicide risk’In December, the US won a challenge to overturn ruling to block his extradition But today, Assange given permission to ask Supreme Court to consider his case
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Julian Assange today won the first stage of his fight to persuade the Supreme Court to consider an appeal against his extradition to the US, where he faces a 175-year prison term if found guilty of hacking charges.
The High Court ruled Assange had one arguable point of law that the Supreme Court may want to consider.
The judges gave WikiLeaks founder, 50, permission to ask the Supreme Court to consider an appeal relating to this issue, but said it was up to the justices themselves to decide whether they would hear the case.
The Wikileaks founder is wanted in the US for allegedly conspiring to hack a classified Pentagon computer network to obtain hundreds of thousands of secret files relating to the Afghanistan and Iraq wars.
In December, the High Court accepted a US bid to overturn a ruling that Assange should not be extradited due to a real and ‘oppressive’ risk of suicide, after American officials promised not to keep him in punishing isolation at a supermax prison.
In an attempt to keep him in the UK, Assange’s lawyers argued judges had been wrong to accept these assurances when they had not been made at his first extradition hearing in 2019.
Today, Lord Chief Justice Lord Burnett and Lord Justice Holroyde agreed this could indeed be a matter worthy of further consideration at the Supreme Court, and gave Assange’s lawyers 14 days to make an application.
Assange’s fiancee, Stella Moris, 38, hailed the ruling as a victory, but said Assange was still ‘far from achieving justice’.
Assange, 50, is wanted in America over an alleged conspiracy following WikiLeaks’ publication of hundreds of thousands of leaked documents
Speaking outside court today, Assange’s fiancee Stella Moris – who has vowed to marry him behind bars – said: ‘Our fight goes on, and we’ll fight this until Julian is freed’
Lord Chief Justice Lord Burnett, sitting with Lord Justice Holroyde, said the issue of how the US had provided assurances about the conditions Assange would be held in was now a ‘legal question’.
‘Assurances [over treatment] are at the heart of many extradition proceedings,’ he said.
Lord Burnett said the High Court refused permission to appeal, but the issue whether the issue needed to be heard in the Supreme Court ‘is a matter appropriately for its decision’.
In a statement after the ruling, Ms Moris, a South African-born lawyer, said: ‘What happened in court today is precisely what we wanted to happen.
‘The High Court certified that we had raised a point of law of general public importance and that the Supreme Court has good grounds to hear this appeal. The situation now is that the Supreme Court has to decide whether it will hear the appeal but make no mistake, we won today in court.
‘But let’s not forget that every time we win, as long as this case isn’t dropped, as long as Julian isn’t freed, Julian continues to suffer.
‘For almost three years he has been in Belmarsh prison and he is suffering profoundly, day after day, week after week, year after year. Julian has to be freed and we hope that this will soon end.
‘But we are far from achieving justice in this case because Julian has been incarcerated for so long and he should not have spent a single day in prison. If there had been justice, the officials who plotted, who conspired to murder Julian, would be in the courtroom right now.’
She added: ‘Our fight goes on and we will fight this until Julian is free.’
Explaining the significance of the ruling, Thomas Garner, Extradition Partner at Fladgate, told MailOnline: ‘Assange may yet have the dubious honour of being the first extradition defendant to secure permission to appeal to the Supreme Court twice.
‘When he lost his first challenge – then to a European Arrest Warrant from Sweden – he sought refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy. There will be no such option this time as he remains in custody.
‘The High Court have certified that Assange’s case involved a point of law of general public importance, but declined to grant permission to appeal to the Supreme Court.
‘Assange must now renew his application for permission to appeal to the Supreme Court directly and they may still refuse to hear the case, but today’s decision keeps his hopes of challenging his extradition to the USA alive.’
Assange has been held at the high-security Belmarsh Prison in London since 2019, when he was arrested for skipping bail during a separate legal battle.
Ms Moris – who met with campaigners outside the High Court this morning – has announced that she plans to wed Assange behind bars
The lawyer is seen with WikiLeaks Editor in Chief Kristinn Hrafnsson (right) by the Royal Courts of Justice today
Before that, he spent seven years holed up inside Ecuador’s Embassy in London, after seeking diplomatic protection in 2012 to avoid extradition to Sweden to face allegations of rape and sexual assault.
Sweden dropped the sex crimes investigations in November 2019 because so much time had elapsed.
American prosecutors say Assange unlawfully helped U.S. Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning steal classified diplomatic cables and military files that WikiLeaks later published, putting lives at risk.
Lawyers for Assange argue that their client shouldn’t have been charged because he was acting as a journalist and is protected by the First Amendment of the US Constitution that guarantees freedom of the press.
They say the documents he published exposed US military wrongdoing in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Speaking earlier this month, Stella Moris said she working on tying the knot with Assange in the ‘difficult setting’ behind bars at HMP Belmarsh.
‘It has been something we have been wanting to do and the ideal circumstances, we don’t know if and when they will happen, so we want to be married,’ she told The Mirror.
‘His young children, ages two and four, have no memory of their father outside the highest security prison of the UK.’
