ikiLeaks founder Julian Assange moved a step closer to being extradited to the U.S. Friday after a British court ruling. The High Court ruled in favor of the U.S. government in its application to overturn an earlier ruling preventing Assange from being extradited.
Authorities in the U.S. accuse Assange of 18 charges relating to WikiLeaks publishing thousands of classified U.S. military and diplomatic documents, primarily in 2009 and 2010, as well as thousands of classified U.S. military and diplomatic documents.
The U.S. government appealed a Jan. 4 decision by a London district judge, who refused to extradite Assange to the U.S. largely due to the risk he would take his own life in a maximum security prison.
One of the senior judges in the appeals, Lord Justice Holroyde, said on Friday that the court would allow Assange to be extradited on the basis that the U.S. had offered a package of assurances regarding his proposed treatment in custody.
There was an agreement to send Assange to his home country of Australia to serve the prison sentence and not to incarcerate him in super-maximum security prison ADX Florence. He was not allowed to commit another offence if he did not commit another offence, as they included an agreement not to subject him to a highly restrictive form of solitary confinement.
The judges of the High Court said they were satisfied by the promises made by the U.S. to reduce the risk of suicide. Holroyde said on Friday that the district judge should have notified the U.S. of her provisional view to give them the chance to give assurances to the court. In an October hearing, Assange s lawyers criticized the U.S. government's assurances, calling them conditional and aspirational Representing Assange, Edward Fitzgerald QC said Australia had not yet agreed to take Assange into solitary confinement if he was convicted, and he predicted that his client would be put in solitary confinement as soon as he arrives in America. In September, Yahoo News reported that the CIA had plotted to poison, abduct or assassin Assange in 2017. Given the revelations of surveillance in the embassy and plots to kill him, Fitzgerald argued during the October hearing that there are great grounds for fearing what will be done to him if he is extradited to the U.S.
What should we know about Julian Assange's extradition appeal?
The British High Court rejected those concerns on Friday, on the basis that the assurances sufficiently protected Assange from any harm.
A coalition of 25 press freedom, civil liberties, and international human rights organizations signed a letter to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland urging him to drop its appeal in Assange's extradition case, saying he acted in the public interest.
The letter says that the government has a legitimate interest in protecting national security interests, but the proceedings against Mr. Assange jeopardize journalism that is crucial to democracy. A precedent created by prosecuting Assange could be used against publishers and journalists, chilling their work and undermining the freedom of the press, according to our view. The coalition said that the reports of a CIA plot to assassinate Assange just heightens our concerns about the motivations behind the prosecution, and the dangerous precedent that is being set. Assange will remain in high-security Belmarsh Prison. The judge ordered the case to be sent to British Home Secretary Priti Patel to decide whether or not the extradition should go ahead. Assange's fiancé Stella Moris said in a statement: We will appeal this decision at the earliest possible moment.