Britain’s Home Secretary Priti Patel approved it on Friday. WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange extradited in the United States, where he faces criminal charges. A London court ordered the extradition in April, but it was pending as Patel was needed to sign it.
What will happen to Assange now?
Assange still has the right to appeal to the English High Court. If denied, Assange should be extradited within 28 days. He is currently lodged in Belmarsh Prison in London.
Assange’s wife Stella and WikiLeaks have said they will appeal the decision to extradite him.
According to the BBC report, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese had previously supported the demand for Assange’s release. Assange is an Australian citizen.
The Sydney Morning Herald reported that Assange’s Australian human rights lawyer, Jennifer Robinson, said the Australian government needed to ask the Biden administration to drop the charges. However, Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong issued a statement saying that the Australian government was not a party to the Assange case nor was it capable of interfering in the legal affairs of any other country, the newspaper said.
Why is Assange looking for America?
Assange gained global fame in the late 2000s when WikiLeaks, which he founded in 2006, began publishing classified and confidential government and corporate documents for public consumption. Some of the most notable of the “leaks” were U.S. government documents that stated that the U.S. military had killed hundreds of civilians in unprovoked incidents during the war in Afghanistan.
The US government wants him in connection with 18 charges of violations of the Espionage Act and the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. It alleges that WikiLeaks had illegally obtained information and put the lives of its executives at risk.
Sweden’s government also declared Assange wanted in a sexual assault case against him, which was dropped in 2019 after the deadline or limitations expired.
How has he escaped extradition so far?
Assange’s troubles began in 2010, when Sweden asked for his extradition over sexual assault allegations leveled by two Swedish women. He denied the allegations and claimed that he was eventually tried in a bid to be extradited to the US for trial.
The Swedish Prosecution Authority said: “Each extradition case is to be judged on its individual merits. Therefore, the Swedish government cannot guarantee in advance that Julian Assange will not be subject to further extradition to the United States.”
Assange sought asylum in the Ecuadorian embassy in 2012. In the same year, when the British Supreme Court rejected Assange’s appeal against extradition to Sweden, he violated his bail conditions to go to the Ecuadorian embassy and was granted asylum.
But in 2019, the Australian national was removed from the embassy and arrested by UK authorities after Ecuador accused Assange of security for alleged attempts to “destabilize” Ecuador’s government and flout his living conditions. withdrawn.
Since then, Assange has been in prison while the extradition trial continues. His lawyers have also argued for his release in view of his deteriorating physical and mental health. In January 2021 a district judge ruled that he was likely to die by suicide in a US prison if extradited. He was still not allowed to leave the UK.
In December last year, the London High Court ruled in favor of the US government after the Joe Biden administration assured it would not keep him in the highest security prison facility. And, if convicted, he could serve his sentence in Australia if requested.
Assange tried to appeal against it to the British Supreme Court, but on 14 March the court denied his permission to appeal. Finally, a London court ordered the extradition in April, which has now been signed.