The founder of WikiLeaks, Julian Assangefaces a decisive hearing this Monday in his extradition process to the United States, in which the High Court of London will weigh whether to authorize his surrender or, instead, allow him to continue appealing in the United Kingdom.

The judges Victoria Sharp and Adam Johnson They will specifically evaluate whether the three guarantees offered to the court by the US Government regarding the treatment he will receive in that country are satisfactory, which the defense will argue are insufficient. Assange’s physical or videoconference presence at this hearing will be unknown until the last moment, due to her precarious physical and mental health.

After listening to the parties, the court will decide either on Monday or on another date if it accepts Washington’s guarantees, which claims it for 18 alleged crimes of espionage and computer intrusion for the revelations on his website, which in 2010 and 2011 exposed abuses by the US Army in Iraq and Afghanistan.

If he approves them, his extradition can be carried out., which the British Government already approved in June 2022. In this case, the defense plans to request a precautionary order from the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) to stop it, in order to start a process in that court in Strasbourg (France). . If, on the other hand, the judges consider one or all of the guarantees defective, the computer programmer may appeal them in a new appeal trial in England.

On March 26, the High Court ruled that Assange could appeal his surrender based on three of nine arguments presented by his defense in a previous trial in February if the US did not offer the aforementioned guarantees. These were to ensure that, if tried there, the 52-year-old Australian will not be punished with the death penalty – illegal in the United Kingdom -; He will not be discriminated against because of his non-American nationality and will be able to rely on the First Amendment of the United States Constitution, which protects freedom of expression.

In a diplomatic communication to the court in April, the Washington Government assured that, if Assange is extradited, “will not be disadvantaged by reason of his nationality “Specifically, you may raise and attempt to rely on the rights and protections offered by the First Amendment during the trial (including any sentencing hearing)” , he said, although he clarified that the decision on whether this applies “corresponds exclusively to the US courts.”

Washington also stated that “the death penalty will not be requested or imposed“, since the computer programmer is not accused of any crime punishable by the maximum penalty. Stella Assange, wife of the defendant and mother of his two minor children, will be present in the courtroom on Monday and plans to make statements both before and after the hearing .

Meanwhile, a large demonstration of supporters of the former hacker is expected in the street. Assange is since April 2019 in preventive detention in London’s high-security Belmarsh prison, after the US demanded his surrender. Previously, after his initial arrest in 2010 at the request of Sweden for a case now filed, he was under house arrest and, between 2012 and 2019, a refugee in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, which eventually withdrew his political asylum.