The Supreme Court, the highest court in the United Kingdom, dismissed on Monday an appeal filed by the founder of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, which gives the green light to his extradition to the United States.
The case will soon go to court. British Home Secretary Priti Patel, who must authorize the deliveryalthough the defense is expected to appeal other parts of the process, which could slow it down.
The 50-year-old Australian, who is serving preventive detention in London’s Belmarsh prison, had appealed a December 10 ruling from the High Court, which approved his extradition to the United States. In turn, it approved a Washington appeal on a ruling of January 21, 2021.
The Supreme has today rejected Assange’s request with the argument that it does not raise “any debatable legal point”, which means that the decision of the Superior remains in force and deportation can be executed if eventually the minister ratifies it.
health risks
Washington appealed in December the ruling of January 21, 2021 by the judge of the first instance Vanessa Baraitser, who denied the delivery of the WikiLeaks founder, considering that he presents a risk of suicide and that prison conditions in the US could exacerbate it.
The Superior Court judges agreed with the US by agreeing that Baraitser He should have asked them at that time for guarantees about the prison regime that would be applied to the accused in order to minimize the risks to his health.
They also considered sufficient the safeguards presented to them a posteriori by the United States Justice, which They included, among others, offering medical attention to the “ex-hacker” and not imposing extreme isolation measures on him from the outset.
British minister’s decision
The decision of the Supreme Court means that the case now returns to the judge of first instance so that she simply refers it to the Minister of the Interior, who will decide whether to order, or deny, the extradition based on current legislation.
In a statement, Assange’s defense has specified that he has “the right to present his arguments within four weeks before (Patel) makes a decision.”
In addition, the Birnberg Pierce law firm recalls that Baraitser blocked the extradition in January of last year due to the risk of suicide, but dismissed other reasons presented by the defense, which “has not yet been appealed.”
The decision of the Supreme is known after the On Sunday, Assange’s girlfriend and mother of his two youngest children, Stella Moris, will announce that the two will be able to marry on March 23 in Belmarsh, after receiving authorization from the prison.
The United States requires the journalist to prosecute him for 18 crimes of espionage and computer intrusion that, according to his lawyers, can carry up to 175 years in prison in that country.
These crimes are related to the publications on his WikiLeaks portal, which in 2010 and 2011 exposed US abuses in his Guantánamo detention center (Cuba) as well as alleged war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan. (I)
Source: Eluniverso
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