British Home Secretary Patel has agreed to extradite WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to the United States. Patel signed it this morning. The ministry sees no legal grounds to stop the extradition of the whistleblower.
The decision is an important moment in Assange’s years-long struggle to prevent extradition. It does not mean that he will be put directly on the plane to the US, because he can still appeal Patel’s decision. WikiLeaks says Assange will.
A court had already formally approved the extradition in mid-April. The judge then ruled that the minister had to make the decision on the actual extradition. She’s done that now.
WikiLeaks has called it”a black day for press freedom and for British democracy.” The whistleblower website says the battle is not over. “This is just the beginning of a new legal battle. We are appealing, ” a statement on Twitter said.
British Home Secretary Patel has agreed to extradite WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to the United States. Patel signed it this morning. The ministry sees no legal grounds to stop the extradition of the whistleblower.
The decision is an important moment in Assange’s years-long struggle to prevent extradition. It does not mean that he will be put directly on the plane to the US, because he can still appeal Patel’s decision. WikiLeaks says Assange will.
A court had already formally approved the extradition in mid-April. The judge then ruled that the minister had to make the decision on the actual extradition. She’s done that now.
WikiLeaks has called it”a black day for press freedom and for British democracy.” The whistleblower website says the battle is not over. “This is just the beginning of a new legal battle. We are appealing, ” a statement on Twitter said.
In December, a judge on appeal ruled that there was no objection to extraditing Assange (50) to the US. The Americans had appealed the ruling of a lower British court that ruled that Assange should not be extradited due to concerns about his mental health.
The U.S. promised not to imprison Assange under a strict regime. He may also apply to serve a possible sentence in his native Australia. Under those conditions, the extradition was approved.
The whistleblower is suspected of leaking classified information about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Americans want to prosecute him for espionage because of the publication of confidential documents in 2010.
In 2012, he sought refuge at the embassy of Ecuador in London. He lived there for seven years, until he was arrested in 2019. Ecuador pulled his hands off him. Now he is stuck in Belmarsh prison awaiting his possible extradition.
If he is prosecuted in the US, Assange risks a prison sentence of 175 years, according to US media.