In a matter of days Julian Assange will find out if he has exhausted all potential challenges through the British courts to being extradited to the US, where he could spend the rest of his life in prison.
The two-day hearing is scheduled to take place in London on Tuesday and Wednesday next week, as he seeks leave to appeal against his extradition for publishing thousands of classified military and diplomatic documents.
His wife, Stella Assange, has said that he could be on a plane to the US within days if he fails, and that she fears he will die if extradited.
Other supporters said the impact of his extradition on press freedom “cannot be underestimated”. One artist has said he will destroy works by Picasso, Rembrandt, Warhol and others should Assange die in prison.
On Thursday a meeting organised by the Foreign Press Association was told that this was the final opportunity for the WikiLeaks founder to challenge the June 2022 decision of Priti Patel – then home secretary – to approve an extradition order.
Assange’s wife told the meeting: “The situation is extremely grave. Julian could be on a plane to the United States within days.
“It is the final hearing if it does not go Julian’s way, there is no possibility to appeal to the supreme court or anywhere else in this jurisdiction.”
Julian Assange’s request to attend the hearing in person, so he could communicate with his lawyers in court, had not yet been granted, his wife said. In previous hearings he had observed the proceedings by video link.
“It is part of the greater absurdity of this case that keeps on shocking me,” Stella Assange said. Her husband has been in Belmarsh prison for almost five years and had not yet spent a single day outside except for his in-person appearance in court on 6 January 2021, she said.
Assange is facing life imprisonment in the US for publishing thousands of classified military and diplomatic documents in 2010.
They were provided by the US army whistleblower Chelsea Manning, had her sentence commuted by the former president Barack Obama and was released after seven years in prison.
The Obama administration had decided not to proceed with charges against Assange, but they were revived during the Donald Trump presidency under the 1917 Espionage Act.
Kristinn Hrafnsson, the editor-in-chief of WikiLeaks, said the case would set a precedent that would have “serious implications” for press freedom all around the world.
“It cannot be underestimated, the effect that it will have,” he said. “If an Australian citizen publishing in Europe can face prison time in the United States, that means no journalists anywhere are safe in the future.
“We are seeing creeping upon us an attack on press freedom worldwide. It is like a disease, like an anti-press pandemic creeping upon us. It has been incrementally taking shape over the years.
“In that sense, Julian Assange has been like a canary in the coalmine. Nobody believed it would be possible that the Espionage Act in the US would be used against a publisher and a journalist. That has now happened for the first time.”
He claimed the UK’s National Security Act was “inspired” by the US Espionage Act and said it was threatening journalists and whistleblowers.
Assange’s lawyers will argue he is being extradited and punished for his political opinions, and that the decision is violating the European convention on human rights, including his right to free speech. They are renewing an application to admit fresh evidence about alleged plans by the CIA to kidnap and assassinate Assange.
Assange had been sick over Christmas and his wife had been unable to visit him, she said. Australia’s high commissioner had intervened with Belmarsh authorities so Assange could see a doctor, his wife claimed.
“His health is in decline, mentally and physically. His life is at risk, every single day he stays in prison. If he is extradited, he will die,” Stella Assange said.
If Assange is successful before the panel of two judges at the high court, then a date will be set for a full appeal hearing.
