The High Court in London said on 26 March that United States authorities must promise that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange will not receive the death penalty and provide other assurances before it rules on his extradition appeal.
Assange is seeking leave to appeal against an earlier High Court decision which denied him permission to appeal.
In the latest ruling, two High Court judges said they will allow Assange to appeal “unless the Government of the United States of America and the Secretary of State provide satisfactory assurances” within three weeks on the following grounds:
- “that Mr Assange is permitted to rely on the First Amendment to the United States Constitution (which protects free speech),
- that he is not prejudiced at trial (including sentence) by reason of his nationality [Assange has Australian nationality -ed.]
- that he is afforded the same First Amendment protections as a United States citizen
- and that the death penalty is not imposed.”
If these assurances are provided there will be a hearing on May 20 “to decide if the assurances are satisfactory” and make a final decision on allowing him to appeal.
The judges said Assange “has a real prospect of success” and “an arguable case” on three of the nine grounds his lawyers presented to the court. They rejected his request to appeal on the six other grounds.
Assange faces 17 American charges for allegedly receiving, possessing and communicating classified information to the public under the Espionage Act, and one charge alleging a conspiracy to commit computer intrusion. The WikiLeaks founder is wanted for publishing thousands of classified documents in 2010 and 2011, which American authorities say broke the law and endangered lives.
If he is extradited to the US after exhausting all his legal appeals, Assange would face trial in the USA and what his lawyers say is up to 175 years in an American maximum-security prison.
In the meantime Assange will remain inside London’s high-security Belmarsh Prison where he has spent the last five years.
Before Assange’s High Court hearing in February, Australia’s parliament voted 86-42 on a motion calling on the U.S. and UK to release Assange, saying that he should be allowed to come home.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who supported the motion, has called for the Assange case to come to a “conclusion” since taking office in 2022 and has raised the matter directly with U.S. President Joe Biden; and a cross-party delegation of Australian MPs has travelled to Washington to lobby U.S. lawmakers for Assange’s freedom.
Both the European and International Federations of Journalists issued a statement on 14 February saying that “the ongoing prosecution of Julian Assange jeopardises media freedom everywhere in the world”. The IFJ and EFJ represent nearly 200 journalists unions’ and associations and have opposed Assange’s extradition since the publication of the U.S. indictments under the U.S. Espionage Act.
Thirty-five American law professors have written to the U.S. Department of Justice warning that the Espionage Act charges against Julian Assange “pose an existential threat to the First Amendment” and although their personal views on Assange and WikiLeaks vary they were united in their concern about the constitutional implications of prosecuting Assange extending “beyond the Espionage Act and beyond national security journalism [to] enable prosecution of routine newsgathering under any number of ambiguous laws and untested legal theories”.
And on 6 February, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture, Alice Jill Edwards, urged the UK government to halt the extradition based on fears that he would be at risk of treatment amounting to torture or other forms of ill-treatment or punishment.
Official court summary of ruling March 26
Full court ruling March 26
Assange extradition on hold – New York Times
Assange cannot be extradited until U.S. rules out death penalty – AP
Assange wins temporary reprieve – Reuters
Assange wins temporary reprieve – The Guardian
Assange hearing at UK High Court – February 2024
Audio technical problems at hearing
Australia calls for release of Assange
EFJ and IFJ say Assange prosecution jeopardises media freedom
Law professors say U.S. charges threaten newsgathering
UN torture expert urges UK to stop Assange extradition
