UK court rules in favour of US in appeal to extradite Julian Assange
The US has won an appeal against a lower court's decision that barred Assange's extradition. The case to extradite WikiLeaks founder will be sent back to the lower court to be heard again.
The US government has won its appeal against a court decision which halted the extradition of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange.
The case will now go back to the lower court, where the matter will be heard again.
Friday's decision is unlikely to be the end of the case. Assange will be able to request permission for a final ruling from the UK's Supreme Court. Assange has been in custody since April 2019, when he was sentenced to 50 weeks behind bars.
Before that sentence, he was hauled out of the Ecuadorian Embassy by British authorities after his citizenship was revoked.
Why is the US seeking extradition?
The Australian is wanted on 18 charges in the United States and faces a maximum 175-year sentence if convicted.
The charges are related to the 2010 release by WikiLeaks of 500,000 secret files detailing aspects of military campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq.
The US government also alleges that he helped intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning steal the 2010 documents before exposing confidential sources around the world.
Manning was pardoned by former President Barack Obama at the end of his second four-year term. But she remained in jail from May 2019 until December 2020 for refusing to testify before a grand jury investigating WikiLeaks.
Assange and his lawyers have long argued that the protracted case against him is politically motivated.
His supporters also see him as a journalist who shone the light on possible war crimes.
Like other sectors maritime is not exceptional interm of transformation in term of technology. A life in custody
Before Assange was sentenced in the UK, he spent seven years at Ecuador's Embassy in London to avoid facing sexual assault allegations in Sweden that were later dropped.
While living in the embassy, Assange fathered two children with a member of his legal team, Stella Moris.
In November he was granted permission to marry Moris in Belmarsh prison.
July saw Assange spend his 50th birthday behind bars, and it was then that he found out that US authorities were continuing to pursue extradition.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said as an Australian citizen Assange was "free to return home" once the legal cases against him have been concluded.
US authorities said if Britain agrees to extradite Assange, he could serve any potential prison sentence in Australia.
kb/sms (AFP, dpa, AP)
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