WikiLeaks founder Assange makes last extradition appeal
LONDON — Julian Assange’s lawyers opened a final U.K. legal challenge Tuesday to stop the WikiLeaks founder from being sent to the United States to face spying charges, arguing that American authorities are seeking to punish him for exposing serious criminal acts by the U.S. government.
Lawyer Edward Fitzgerald said Assange may “suffer a flagrant denial of justice” if he is sent to the United States. At a two-day High Court hearing, Assange’s attorneys are asking judges to grant an appeal, his last legal roll of the dice in Britain.
Assange, 52, was not in court. Judge Victoria Sharp said he was granted permission to come from Belmarsh Prison for the hearing, but had chosen not to attend. Fitzgerald said the Australian was unwell.
Stella Assange, his wife, said Julian had wanted to attend, but that his health was “not in good condition.”
“He was sick over Christmas, he’s had a cough since then,” she said.
Assange’s family and supporters say his physical and mental health have suffered during more than a decade of legal battles, including seven years in self-exile in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London and the last five years in the high-security prison on the outskirts of the British capital.
He has been indicted on 17 charges of espionage and one charge of computer misuse over his website’s publication of classified U.S. documents almost 15 years ago. American prosecutors say Assange helped U.S. Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning steal diplomatic cables and military files that WikiLeaks later published, putting lives at risk.
To his supporters, Assange is a secrecy-busting journalist who exposed U.S. military wrongdoing in Iraq and Afghanistan. They argue that the prosecution is politically motivated and he won’t get a fair trial in the U.S.
Hundreds of supporters holding “Free Julian Assange” signs and chanting “there is only one decision — no extradition” held a protest outside the neo-Gothic High Court in London. Rallies were also held in cities around the world, including Rome, Brussels and Berlin.
“If Julian Assange is successfully extradited to the U.S., journalists the world over are going to have to watch their back,” said Simon Crowther, legal adviser to human rights group Amnesty International.
Stella Assange told the crowd the case was about “the right to be able to speak freely without being put in prison and hounded and terrorized by the state.”
If the judges rule against Assange, he can ask the European Court of Human Rights to block his extradition — though supporters worry he could be put on a plane to the U.S. before that happens, because the British government has already signed an extradition order.
Assange’s lawyers say he could face up to 175 years in prison if convicted, though U.S. authorities have said the sentence is likely to be much shorter.
Lawyers for the U.S. government will set out their case Wednesday. James Lewis, representing the U.S., said Assange was being prosecuted “because he is alleged to have committed serious criminal offences.”
He argued in written submissions that Assange’s actions “threatened damage to the strategic and national security interests of the United States” and put individuals named in the documents — including Iraqis and Afghans who had helped U.S. forces — at risk of “serious physical harm.”
Assange’s legal troubles began in 2010, when he was arrested in London at the request of Sweden, which wanted to question him about allegations of rape and sexual assault made by two women. In 2012, Assange jumped bail and sought refuge inside the Ecuadorian Embassy.
The relationship between Assange and his hosts eventually soured, and he was evicted from the embassy in 2019. British police arrested and imprisoned him for a 2012 breach of bail. Sweden dropped the sex crimes investigations in November 2019 because so much time had elapsed.