Stella Moris, the fiancee of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, called on the British government on Tuesday to prevent his extradition to the United States, which wants him tried for espionage following a massive leak of classified documents.
The Australian’s supporters saw one of their last hopes of avoiding extradition dashed on Monday when the British High Court refused to consider his appeal against his surrender to US justice.
The case will now be referred to British Home Secretary Priti Patel, who is ultimately responsible for approving any extradition.
Stressing that “Julian’s fate is now in the hands of the Interior Minister,” Moris insisted in a statement that “this is a political case and she can put an end to it.”
“It takes political courage, but this is what it takes to preserve an open society that protects publishers from foreign persecution,” he said.
Assange, 50, is on trial in the United States for the publication as of 2010 of more than 700,000 classified documents on US military and diplomatic activities, especially in Iraq and Afghanistan.
If convicted of all charges, he could be sentenced to up to 175 years in prison, in a case that his supporters denounce as a serious attack on press freedom.
Imprisoned in a high-security prison near London for almost three years, the Australian was arrested by British police in April 2019 at the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where he had taken refuge seven years earlier in violation of the conditions of his freedom under bail.
Even then he feared being extradited to the United States from Sweden, where he faced rape charges that have since been dropped.
Moris, a South African lawyer with whom Assange secretly fathered two children during his years at the Ecuadorian legation, announced Sunday that the couple had been given permission to marry on March 23 in a London jail. (I)
Source: Eluniverso
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