London’s High Court is seeking assurances from the US government that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange will not be sentenced to death if extradition is approved.
In addition to striking down the death penalty, the British court wants U.S. assurances that Assange, 52, will receive free speech protections under the First Amendment, the two-judge panel wrote in a statement. Ruling to be announced on Tuesday. They also demanded guarantees that Assange would not face bias at his trial in the United States because of his Australian citizenship. The judge said the U.S. government has three weeks to submit the requested assurances.
Assange is asking the High Court for permission to appeal against his extradition to the United States, where he is charged with 18 counts related to the publication of secret government, military and diplomatic intelligence documents on WikiLeaks. In 2010, Assange released a classified report Video of 2007 US helicopter attack More than a dozen people were killed in Baghdad, Iraq, including two Reuters staff. WikiLeaks later released 250,000 diplomatic cables from U.S. embassies around the world.
In a ruling on Tuesday, the High Court postponed a decision on Assange’s appeal until May 20. If the U.S. government refuses to submit the guarantees required by the high court, Assange’s extradition appeal will be approved and an appeal hearing will be held.
It is unclear whether the United States will provide the guarantees sought by the high court.Officials claimed that by releasing the secret documents, Assange take the lives of civilians Cooperation with the United States in Iraq and Afghanistan is at risk.
WikiLeaks lawyer Jennifer Robinson said she did not believe the legal team could rely on any assurances from the U.S. government, BBC reportadding that the United States should drop the case entirely.
“The diplomatic assurances from the United States are worthless,” Robinson said, according to the outlet.
Assange has been held in a high-security prison in London since 2019 (the same year in Ecuador) Asylum status revoked It granted the founder of WikiLeaks a seven-year term. Years before Assange worked in the Ecuadorian embassy, two WikiLeaks volunteers accused Assange of rape and sexual assault in Sweden, which he has always denied. Assange claimed the Swedish case was a pretext for the United States to extradite him.
Assange’s wife Stella Assange has said she fears her husband will commit suicide if he is quarantined in a US prison. Stella Assange said on Tuesday he was being punished for his work as a journalist, According to National Public Radio. The United States has said it does not consider Assange a journalist.
“Julian is a political prisoner. He is a journalist who is being persecuted because he exposed the true cost of war in human life,” Stella Assange said.