WikiLeaks founder Assange has been fighting his extradition to the USA for years and the legal process has almost been exhausted. Now the question before a London court is whether Assange can still appeal.
Things are getting tighter for Julian Assange. Extradition to the USA could take place soon. The legal remedies with which he can defend himself against extradition have largely been exhausted.
A two-day hearing will take place in London from today at the High Court. The judges have to decide whether Assange can appeal against the transfer to the USA, which was approved by the court in 2021 and later ordered by the then Interior Minister.
It is unlikely that the decision will be made and announced this week, but it is possible. If the judges decide he can’t appeal, he could be deported pretty quickly.
Wife worries about health
For his wife Stella Assange it is a matter of life and death. She warned that Assange would die in the USA if he was extradited: “Julian has been in the high-security Belmarsh prison for almost five years. His physical and mental health has deteriorated significantly.”
The prison cell in which Julian Assange has been imprisoned since 2019 is two by three meters in size. He is locked here alone for 21 hours a day.
A 2019 image showing Julian Assange leaving a British court. Is his extradition getting closer?
US authorities promise sufficient supplies
His extradition was initially stopped because doctors warned that he would not receive adequate medical care in the USA. The US authorities then assured that there would be appropriate supplies.
However, this was not a reliable assurance, says Stella Assange: “In the USA, solitary confinement is routinely implemented. In the USA there is also the extreme form of solitary confinement. The CIA is allowed to determine his prison conditions – that is the agency that wanted to kill him. ”
The extreme form of solitary confinement, for example, involves imprisonment in a windowless room, all contact with the outside world can be interrupted, and exchanges with lawyers are monitored.
Stella Assange also refers to reporting that appears to show that the CIA planned to kidnap or kill Assange. Numerous sources are named in the corresponding media report, which was published in 2021 by several investigative journalists on the Yahoo News portal.
A leak and its consequences
In 2010, Julian Assange published documents proving that US soldiers had committed war crimes in Afghanistan and Iraq. These files had been leaked to him.
Rebecca Vincent from the organization Reporters Without Borders sees press freedom at risk as a result of the action against Assange:
We have seen evidence of war crimes and human rights abuses. There was no prosecution for this. Only the publishers were prosecuted. If US authorities bring him to America and charge him, that will be alarming. It will affect other media companies, anyone who publishes research based on leaked information.
ECHR as the last hope?
Vincent describes Assange as a political prisoner. If the judges deny him an appeal, Assange would only have the chance to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights.
However, the chances of success are difficult to assess. On the one hand, because Assange’s lawyers in Great Britain were able to take legal action against the extradition. On the other hand, because it is unclear how the British justice system would react to such an intervention.
The British government is under pressure to roll back the jurisdiction of the European Court of Human Rights. This has to do with refugee policy in the United Kingdom. The government wants to implement plans according to which refugees who come across the English Channel can be deported to Rwanda. The Strasbourg court should not be able to stop this decision.
The case also affects many people in Australia because Assange has Australian citizenship. Parliament has just voted overwhelmingly in favor of a motion calling on Britain and the US to bring the matter to a close so that Assange can return to his family in Australia.
Christoph Prössl, ARD London, tagesschau, February 20, 2024 6:34 a.m