U.K. court approves Assange extradition

LONDON — A British court ruled Friday that Julian Assange can be extradited to the United States to face Espionage Act charges that could result in decades of jail time, reversing a lower-court decision in the long-running case against the embattled WikiLeaks founder.

The ruling was a victory for the Biden administration, which has pursued an effort to prosecute Assange begun under the Trump administration. But Assange will seek to appeal the decision to Britain’s Supreme Court, according to his legal team.

The Justice Department’s decision to charge Assange with crimes for publishing secret government documents raised First Amendment issues and alarmed press-freedom advocates. His transfer to the United States could set off a momentous constitutional battle.

The extradition case in Britain, however, has turned not on whether the charges against Assange are legitimate but on whether U.S. prison conditions are too harsh for someone with his mental health.

In ruling Assange can be extradited, Britain’s High Court said it was satisfied by assurances provided by the Biden administration that it would not hold him under the most austere conditions reserved for high-security prisoners and that, if he were to be convicted, it would let him serve his sentence in his native Australia.

Assange fled into the Ecuadorian Embassy in London in 2012, following allegations of sexual assault in Sweden. That investigation was later dropped. He remained in the embassy for seven years until he was ejected in 2019. He has been detained in London’s Belmarsh prison since then.