Julian Assange will learn whether he can fight to stop his extradition to the United States at 9.30pm AEDT (10.30am UK time) on Tuesday when two senior judges of London’s high court hand down their ruling.
“This is it,” his wife, Stella Assange, said in a post to X. “DECISION TOMORROW.”
The WikiLeaks founder has since 2019 battled extradition from the UK to the US, where he would face espionage charges for the publication of hundreds of thousands of leaked documents about the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, as well as diplomatic cables, in 2010 and 2011.
But what was his two-day hearing in London’s high court about, and what is at stake now? Here is everything you need to know.
What is Assange arguing?
Last month, Assange took to London’s high court seeking permission to appeal his extradition.
In 2022, Britain approved his extradition, which he has been trying to overturn since. His first attempt to appeal was refused, hence the two-day hearing seeking to reverse that judgement.
Assange’s legal team argued that it would be in breach of the extradition treaty between the UK and the US, which prohibits extradition for political offences.
“This legally unprecedented prosecution seeks to criminalise the application of ordinary journalistic practices of obtaining and publishing true classified information of the most obvious and important public interest,” Edward Fitzgerald KC, who represents Assange, submitted to the court.
Fitzgerald said Assange and WikiLeaks “were responsible for the exposure of criminality on the part of the US government on an unprecedented scale,” including torture, rendition, extrajudicial killings and war crimes.
He alleged “state retaliation” motivated the US prosecution and so was unlawful. Fitzgerald also warned that if Assange was extradited there was “a real risk that he’ll suffer a flagrant denial of justice”.
Mark Summers KC, also for Assange, raised the issue of CIA officials under former US president Donald Trump reportedly discussing abducting and even assassinating Assange.
The US case
The US argue Assange’s leaks put the lives of their agents in peril, and accused Assange’s team of having “consistently and repeatedly misrepresented” the case.
James Lewis KC, for the US, said Assange was not being prosecuted for “mere publication” but for “aiding and abetting” or “conspiring with” the whistleblower Chelsea Manning to unlawfully obtain the documents in question, “undoubtedly committing serious criminal offences in so doing and then disclosing the unredacted names of sources (thus putting those individuals at grave risk of harm)”.
What’s next?
A full appeal hearing will be held to reconsider Assange’s challenge to extradition, if he wins.
But if the judges deny permission to appeal, all challenges his legal team can make in the UK courts will have been exhausted.
Assange, who has been held at Belmarsh prison since 2019, could, however, appeal to the European Court of Human Rights to order the UK not to extradite him while it considers his case – this would be his last option.
If extradited to the US, he could be jailed there for up to 175 years.
The Wall Street Journal reported in February that the US government considering a plea deal offer to Assange, allowing him to admit to a misdemeanor, but his lawyers say they have been “given no indication” Washington intends to change its approach.
