WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange should learn later on Friday if the two senior judges from the London High Court have overturned overturn the district magistrate’s previous decision not to extradite him to the US that the US government appealed against.
The parties will not be attending in person the London Administrative Court’s hearing, marked as “Judgement hand down”, which is scheduled for 10:15 GMT, but just like in previous hearings, Assange´s supporters will gather outside the Royal Court of Justice in central London in solidarity.
The UK High Court judgment, whatever it is, will likely be subject to further, final appeal by the losing side to the UK’s Supreme Court.
UK district judge Vanessa Baraitser ruled against extraditing the WikiLeaks founder to the US in January, citing his fragile mental health and the risk of suicide if sent to a US prison, but her decision was appealed to the London High Court by the US Department of Justice.
US government’s lawyers argued in their October appeal that Judge Baraitser had not given sufficient weight to other expert testimony about Assange’s mental state and have tried to assure the High Court that Assange would receive appropriate treatment and he won’t be held in punishing isolation at a federal supermax prison.
If tried and convicted in the US, Assange faces up to 175 years in prison on 18 espionage charges after 2010 publishing 500,000 classified documents on war crimes committed by US troops during the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Yet, the exact sentence is difficult to estimate and could be shorter.
The Australian journalist and whistleblower have been on preventive detention at southeast London’s Belmarsh high-security prison since October 2020 when he finished his 11-month sentence for breach of bail after staying seven years in the Ecuadorean embassy in London.
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