Julian Assange granted right to appeal extradition to US – Washington Examiner

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was granted the right to challenge his extradition to the United States, significantly improving his legal position.

Assange has been held by U.K. authorities since 2019 after Ecuador ended his seven-year asylum stay in its Embassy in London over an unrelated rape case in Sweden, which was later dropped. U.K. police dragged Assange out of the Embassy and sentenced him to 50 weeks in prison for jumping bail in 2012. However, in May 2019, the U.S. indicted Assange on 18 charges related to WikiLeaks’s publishing of over half a million classified documents relating to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

A protester stands outside the High Court in London, Monday, May 20, 2024. A British court has ruled that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange can appeal against an order that he be extradited to the U.S. on espionage charges.(AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

If convicted, he faces 175 years in prison. He has spent the past five years battling his extradition, which has been repeatedly delayed.

His extradition was first delayed in January 2021 after a U.K. judge ruled that he was likely to kill himself in harsher U.S. prison conditions. Rulings went back and forth in the following years, with the main concern being whether Assange could be guaranteed a fair trial.

The Australian dissident’s latest victory came on Monday when his last-ditch attempt to prevent his extradition succeeded. A new trial date hasn’t been given yet.

Assange’s prosecution has become a source of major controversy, with battling concerns over free speech and national security. His supporters hail him as a hero of free speech and government transparency, while critics deride him as a tool of foreign intelligence agencies who endangered U.S. intelligence agents.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

Supporters and opponents in the U.S. defy a typical party binary, with Republicans and Democrats on both sides of the debate.

In April, President Joe Biden said he was “considering” ending the prosecution of Assange.

Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Telegram
Tumblr