FALCON POWERS – A British court is expected to issue a final ruling on Monday regarding whether Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, should be extradited to the United States for leaking a vast number of classified American documents, putting an end to 13 years of legal battles and detention periods.
Two judges at the Supreme Court in London will decide whether the court is satisfied with the U.S. assurances that Assange (52 years old) will not face the death penalty and that he can rely on the right to freedom of expression guaranteed by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution if he is to be tried in the United States on espionage charges. Assange’s lawyers state that he is either anticipating extradition by plane across the Atlantic to the United States within 24 hours of the ruling, release from prison, or the continuation of the case for several more months.
Last week, his wife, Stella, stated, “I have a feeling that anything can happen at this stage… Julian may be extradited or released.”
She also mentioned that her husband hopes to be present in court for the decisive hearing. WikiLeaks has published hundreds of thousands of secret U.S. military documents regarding the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, constituting one of the largest security breaches in U.S. military history, along with a massive number of diplomatic cables.
In April 2010, a leaked video showed a U.S. helicopter attack in 2007 that resulted in the killing of over 10 individuals, including two Reuters journalists, in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad.
U.S. authorities seek to prosecute Assange, an Australian national, on 18 charges, almost all under espionage laws, arguing that WikiLeaks’ disclosures were reckless, harmed national security, and endangered the lives of informants. Many of his supporters worldwide describe the trial as a farce and an attack on the press and freedom of expression, while he has faced criticism for the consequences of his actions. Calls to drop the case have come from various quarters, including human rights organizations, some media bodies, and political leaders such as Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
Assange was initially arrested in the UK in 2010 on a Swedish arrest warrant related to allegations of sexual crimes that were later dropped. Since then, he has been under house arrest for a period of time and sought refuge at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London for seven years. He has been in high-security custody since 2019, awaiting the current ruling on his extradition.
