Two judges will decide in two hearings, today and tomorrow, whether the founder of WikiLeaks should be handed over to Washington, which is demanding him for 18 crimes. If he loses, he will only have the European Court of Human Rights left.
Julian Assangewill present today before the High Court of London what could be his last legal resort in the United Kingdom against his extradition to the United States, which demands 18 espionage crimes and computer intrusion due to the revelations on its WikiLeaks portal.
At the request of the Australian’s defense, judges Victoria Sharp and Adam Johnson will review, in hearings today and tomorrow, the decision made on June 6, 2023 by a single judge, Jonathan Swift, who denied him permission to continue appealing in this case. country and approved his extradition order.
After listening to the representatives of the 52-year-old journalist and activist and the British Prosecutor’s Office, representing the American Justice, the judges could give your ruling immediately or postpone it.
Two options: new trial in the United Kingdom or refer it to the ECtHR
Faced with a double scenario, Assange faces two possible outcomes: that the two magistrates authorize him to appeal the parts of his case that until now his defense had not addressed—which would initiate a new trial— or, on the other hand, they agree with Swift in prohibiting it, which would activate the delivery mechanism To USA.
In the second case, your lawyers will immediately request urgent precautionary measures from the European Court of Human Resources (ECtHR), under article 39 of its regulations, to stop the extradition, while they file an appeal before the European court, according to sources close to the computer programmer.
Last Wednesday, the Parliament of Australia demanded that the governments of the United States and the United Kingdom release the programmer so that he can return to his country of origin, in a resolution that included among its defenders the voice of the Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese.
The British Government, however, has put its profile in recent years and, beyond the approval of extradition, has left Assange’s future in the hands of the courts, in an apparent attempt to avoid political controversies or to put in question relations with the United States at risk.
Assange is in preventive prison in London’s Belmarsh high-security prison, since he was detained at the request of the United States after his expulsion on April 11, 2019 from the Ecuadorian embassy in London, which withdrew his asylum.
The journalist had taken refuge there in 2012, after his initial arrest in the British capital in 2010 at the request of Sweden, for a case now archived.
The United States is pursuing him for classified information – provided by his contact in the US Army Chelsea Manning, currently at large – published in 2010 and 2011 by WikiLeaks, which exposed the US human rights violations in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
Source: Eitb
I am Michael Melvin, an experienced news writer with a passion for uncovering stories and bringing them to the public. I have been working in the news industry for over five years now, and my work has been published on multiple websites. As an author at 24 News Reporters, I cover world section of current events stories that are both informative and captivating to read.