WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange came one step closer to facing criminal charges in the United States for violating espionage law and conspiring to hack government computers, after Washington won an appeal over his extradition in an English court on Friday.
US authorities indicted 50-year-old Australian-born Assange on 18 counts related to WikiLeaks’ disclosure of large amounts of confidential US military records and diplomatic cables that they said had put lives in danger.
His supporters regard Assange as an anti-establishment hero who has fallen victim to the United States for exposing America’s wrongdoing in Afghanistan and Iraq.
The United States won an appeal against a ruling by a London district judge that Assange should not be extradited because he would likely commit suicide in an American prison.
“Court allows appeal”Said Judge Timothy Holroyde.
The judge said he was satisfied with a package of assurances given by the United States on Assange’s detention conditions, including a promise not to hold him in the so-called “ADX” maximum security prison in Colorado and that he would be transferred to Australia to fulfill his convict if convicted.
But more obstacles remain before Assange can be sent to the United States: The legal dispute is likely to reach the Supreme Court, the last court of appeals.
Assange’s fiancée, Stella Moris, said her legal team would appeal the decision.
“How can it be fair, how can it be right, how can it be possible to extradite Julian to the same country that conspired to kill him? “He said. “We will appeal this decision as soon as possible“, Held.
Judge Holroyde said the case should now be referred to Westminster Magistrates Court with the instruction that the judges refer it to the British Government to decide whether or not Assange should be extradited.
Assange, who denies wrongdoing, was not in court. He remains in the Belmarsh High Security Prison in London, where he has been for more than two and a half years.
WikiLeaks rose to fame when it published a US military video in 2010 showing a 2007 Apache helicopter attack in Baghdad that killed a dozen people, including two members of the Reuters news staff. He then published thousands of secret classified files and diplomatic cables.
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