LAST UPDATE | 20 Apr 2022
A UK COURT has today issued a formal order to extradite WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to the United States to face trial over the publication of secret files relating to the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
The decision now rests with Home Secretary Priti Patel, although Assange’s lawyers may still appeal to the High Court if she approves the extradition.
An extradition order was issued by chief magistrate Paul Goldspring during a seven-minute hearing at Westminster Magistrates’ Court this morning.
Goldspring said: “In layman’s terms, I am duty bound to send your case to the Secretary of State for a decision.”
Outside the court, scores of supporters gathered, holding placards reading ‘Don’t extradite Assange’.
Assange (50) was not present in court physically, although he watched the administrative proceedings by video link from Belmarsh Prison. He appeared to form a heart shape with his hands during part of the hearing.
Assange is wanted in the US over an alleged conspiracy to obtain and disclose national defence information following WikiLeaks’ publication of hundreds of thousands of leaked documents relating to the Afghanistan and Iraq wars.
His legal team claimed the publication of classified documents exposed US wrongdoing and were in the public interest. They said the prosecution was politically motivated and that he faces up to 175 years in jail.
Assange, who married his fiancee Stella Moris last month, has been held in Belmarsh prison for three years since being dragged out of the Ecuadorian embassy in London.
Noise from Assange’s supporters could be heard outside the courtroom.
Among them was former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, who told those assembled: “He’s done absolutely no more than telling the truth to the world. We will carry on campaigning.”
Appeal
Assange’s lawyers have vowed to make representations to Patel and potentially launch further appeals on other points in the case.
“No appeal to the High Court has yet been filed by him in respect of the other important issues he raised previously,” his lawyers Birnberg Peirce Solicitors said in a statement last month.
“That separate process of appeal has, of course, yet to be initiated.”
Assange was last month denied permission to appeal to the UK Supreme Court against moves to extradite him to the US.
In January 2021, the 50-year-old Australian appeared to have won a reprieve on the grounds he was a suicide risk if he was kept in solitary confinement at a maximum security US facility.
But the US government appealed, and at a two-day appeal hearing in October 2021 its lawyers pointed to diplomatic assurances that Assange would not be held in punishing isolation at a federal supermax prison, and would receive appropriate care.
Assange appealed that ruling and, in January 2022, two judges allowed him to apply to the country’s highest court on “points of law of general public importance”.
But the court refused permission to appeal, saying the application “didn’t raise an arguable point of law”.
Contains reporting from © AFP 2022
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