Julian Assange avoids immediate extradition to US

The WikiLeaks founder has avoided immediate extradition to the US, with the British High Court seeking reassurances from the Biden administration that he will not face the death penalty.

WikiLeaks founder Julian ­Assange has avoided immediate extradition to the US, with the British High Court seeking reassurances from the Biden administration that he will not face the death penalty and he will have the right to free speech.

There was confusion outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London when the decision was handed down, with many people unsure if the delay – and with further legal action pending – was good news as supporters had wanted the entire extradition case thrown out.

After more than a decade of court battles, seven years of asylum in the Ecuadorean ­embassy and five years as a ­remand prisoner at the Belmarsh prison in London, the Australian is likely to be flown to Virginia in the US to face espionage allegations once the British court is satisfied he will not face the death penalty and that he is able to rely on the first amendment of the US constitution, which allows for journalists’ freedom of speech.

If the assurances are not filed by April 16, the court has allowed Assange’s legal team leave to ­appeal. If the assurances are provided the court will list the case for May 20 for a one-day hearing, after which Assange will be extradited to the US.

“The Divisional Court considers that Mr Assange has a real prospect of success on three of the nine grounds of appeal,” a statement from court said.

“The court has given the government of the United States three weeks to give satisfactory assurances … that Mr Assange is permitted to rely on the first amendment to the United States constitution (which protects free speech), that he is not prejudiced at trial (including sentence) by reason of his nationality, that he is afforded the same first amendment protections as a United States citizen and that the death penalty is not imposed.”

The US State Department had previously argued Assange couldn’t rely on the first amendment because he was not an American citizen.

Assange’s wife Stella said she was “astounded” by the court’s decision to delay her husband’s appeal, saying “what the courts have done is to invite a political intervention from the US”.

“I find this astounding.”

She demanded that the Biden administration drop “this shameful case” and insisted “this is a shame on every democracy”.

Former British Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said outside the court that the ruling was “a slight step forward” because of the conditions attached to any extradition.

He called on US President Joe Biden “to drop the charges to allow Julian to go free and to speak up for the rights of journalists”.

Rebecca Vincent of Reporters Without Borders was asked if the tour ruling was “good, bad or ugly” to which she replied: “the decision is in the middle”. She said it was impossible to predict how the case will proceed, depending on if the Americans provide the assurances. She said that Mrs Assange was “really angry because this case should have been dropped, and we share her anger”.

Assange’s complex legal battles had been followed for more than a decade after he had embarrassed the US government by disclosing war crimes in Afghanistan and Iraq in 2010 and 2011. Many believe his legal woes were compounded by the WikiLeaks release of Vault 7 files in 2017 which exposed American cyber capabilities and electronic surveillance.

Assange spent seven years of voluntary detention in an Ecuadorean embassy seeking asylum to avoid investigation by Swedish authorities, which he ­believed was a front for the US to extradite him. Then for much of the past five years he has been in the high-security Belmarsh ­prison London after serving 11 months for a bail offence.

But Tuesday’s decision means Assange has again avoided his worst fears of being under the control of the United States and placed in solitary confinement to face espionage allegations.

If those assurances are given and the extradition goes ahead, Assange’s legal team is prepared to lodge an application for an immediate emergency injunction to the European Court of Human Rights to stop any extradition.

During the various court battles the American lawyers have given assurances that Assange would not be placed in solitary conditions, but his lawyer, Jennifer Robinson, said those claims were “conditional” and that once in the American justice system prison authorities could decide he has done something that justifies a change to his situation.

The ruling is a setback for the US government which has ­accused Assange of conspiring with US Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning to obtain classified military information.

The US indictment includes 17 counts of espionage and one computer misuse charge for revealing hundreds of thousands of classified military documents and diplomatic cables and it will be the US case that ­Assange endangered the lives of informants and that he posed a significant ­security risk to the American people.

Assange had argued to the High Court that the Central Intelligence Agency had plotted to assassinate him and that his life was at risk if he was extradited. He has claimed to be a journalist and therefore should be protected under the first amendment of the US constitution.

He had successfully argued that his extradition was a “political offence” and should be reconsidered.

Another member of his legal team, Edward Fitzgerald, had told the court earlier this year that Assange had exposed American government criminality on an “unprecedented scale” and that the Americans had been involved in torture, rendition, extrajudicial killings and war crimes.

Reporters Without Borders has claimed the case against ­Assange – who is Australian living and working in the United Kingdom – is a threat to international journalists because America may seek extradition of any author whose views they ­object to if they successfully prosecute him.

Assange faces a maximum term of 175 years if found guilty on all charges, however in repeated court sessions US lawyers have insisted the usual sentence would be significantly shorter. The Americans have also negotiated a deal with the Australian government that, if he is convicted, Assange will be sent to Australia to serve out his sentence.

Recently there were reports that the Americans were considering a deal that in return for a guilty plea to a misdemeanour of handling classified information Assange could be released soon given time already served.