WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s has won a last ditch bid to appeal his extradition to the United States to face espionage charges.
High Court judges on Monday granted him leave to appeal his removal to the US where he is being prosecuted over an alleged conspiracy to obtain and disclose national defence information over the publication of hundreds of thousands of leaked documents on the Afghanistan and Iraq wars.
The decision has granted the 52-year-old a reprieve in order for lawyers to challenge his extradition at a full appeal hearing at a later date.
It had been feared the 52-year-old could have been put on a plane within days if his bid was denied. However his legal team had vowed to apply to the European Court of Human Rights for an emergency injunction to halt his removal if they were unsuccessful.
Dozens of supporters gathered outside the Royal Courts of Justice ahead of the crunch hearing on Monday.
It comes after lawyers for Assange, who is being held at high security prison HMP Belmarsh, asked for the go-ahead to challenge a previous ruling over his extradition in a two-day hearing in February.
His team claim that the 52-year-old could face up to 175 years in prison if he is convicted of publishing hundreds of thousands of leaked documents and argue that the decision to prosecute him is “state retaliation” for his political views.
Last month Dame Victoria Sharp and Mr Justice Johnson dismissed most of Assange’s legal arguments but said that unless assurances were given by the US he would be able to bring an appeal on three grounds.
These assurances were that Assange would be protected by and allowed to rely on the First Amendment – which protects freedom of speech in the US – that he is not “prejudiced at trial” due to his nationality, and that the death penalty is not imposed.
Last month the two judges confirmed the US had provided an assurance to the court, however Assange’s wife Stella dismissed the promises as “blatant weasel words”.
Edward Fitzgerald KC, representing Assange in the latest hearing, said in his written submissions that an assurance provided by the US government was “not an assurance at all”.
On the issue of whether he would be prejudiced by reason of his nationality or use the First Amendment as a defence at trial, Mr Fitzgerald said: “This is not an assurance at all. It assures only that Mr Assange ‘may seek to’ raise the First Amendment.”
He continued: “Even if it did purport to be an assurance of outcome, which it does not, that the First Amendment could be employed by Mr Assange, it could not be a binding one.”
James Lewis KC, for the US government, said that Assange’s conduct was “simply unprotected” by the First Amendment.
In written submissions, Mr Lewis said: “The position of the US prosecutor is that no-one, neither US citizens nor foreign citizens, are entitled to rely on the First Amendment in relation to publication of illegally obtained national defence information giving the names of innocent sources to their grave and imminent risk of harm.”
However lawyers for Assange said they accepted the promise that he would not face the death penalty in the US.
Assange was not present at the hearing in London, with his barrister telling the court that “for health reasons, he has decided not” to attend.
In February Mr Summers and Mr Fitzgerald KC, for Mr Assange, had argued that the US was trying to suppress those who were “willing and prepared” to hold officials to account for alleged wrongdoing during the “war on terror”. “Mr Assange was one of those targets,” they said.
However, lawyers for the US said Mr Assange had put lives at imminent risk by publishing the names of those who had helped the country in unredacted classified documents in “one of the largest compromises of classified information in the history of the United States”.
“These were documents that disclosed to the world the unredacted names of human sources who had provided information to the US,” Clair Dobbin KC told the court, adding that this separates Mr Assange from The New York Times and other news outlets, which also published information exposed by WikiLeaks.
Mr Assange’s wife previously warned that the outcome of the appeal bid is life or death for her husband – whose health has deteriorated in prison, where he spends 22 hours a day in confinement.
The Australian national has been in prison since he was removed from the Ecuadorian embassy in 2019.
More follows on this breaking news story…
