Assange in final battle today to stop extradition to the US

(Patria) - WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange today begins what could be his last chance to stop his extradition from the United Kingdom to the United States after more than thirteen years of fighting in English courts, Reuters reported.

US prosecutors are seeking to bring Assange (52) to trial on 18 charges related to WikiLeaks' publication of vast amounts of classified US military records and diplomatic cables. They claim this endangered the lives of US agents and that there is no justification for the crime. Many of Assange's supporters see him as an anti-establishment hero and a journalist persecuted for exposing US war crimes.

Assange's legal battles began in 2010, and he then spent seven years in the Ecuadorian embassy in London before being jailed in 2019 for breaching bail conditions. He has been held in a high-security prison in southeast London ever since, even getting married there.

The UK finally approved his extradition to Washington in 2022 after a judge had initially blocked it due to concerns for his mental health meaning he would be at risk of suicide if deported.

His lawyers will attempt to overturn that approval at a two-day hearing before two judges at the High Court in London, which could be his last chance to stop the extradition.

His wife Stella described it last week as a matter of life and death. They will argue that Assange's prosecution is politically motivated and an attack on
free speech, and that it is the first time a publisher has been charged under the US Espionage Act.

His supporters include Amnesty International, Reporters Without Borders, media
organisations that worked with WikiLeaks, and Australian politicians, including Prime Minister
Anthony Albanese, who last week voted for a motion calling for his return to Australia. Pope Francis granted his wife an audience last year.

If Assange wins the final case, an appeal hearing will be held to reconsider his objection. If he loses, his only remaining option would be before the European Court of Human Rights, to which an appeal has already been lodged against the London ruling.

Speaking last week, Stella Assange said she would approach the European Court of Human Rights for an urgent injunction if necessary. She said her husband would not survive if extradited.

"His health is deteriorating, physically and mentally," she said.

"His life is in danger every day that he remains in prison - and if he is extradited, he will die," she added.

Assange's brother Gabriel Shipton compared the WikiLeaks founder to Alexei Navalny,
the Russian opposition activist who died in prison on Friday while serving a three-decade sentence.

"I know exactly how it feels to have a loved one unjustly imprisoned without hope," he told the BBC. "For them to die, that is what we live in fear of, that Julian will be lost to us, lost in the US prison system or even die in a UK prison."

WikiLeaks first came to prominence in 2010 when it published a US military video showing a 2007 Apache helicopter attack in Baghdad that killed about a dozen people, including two Reuters journalists. It then published thousands of secret classified files and diplomatic dispatches that revealed often highly critical US assessments of world leaders from Russian President Vladimir Putin to members of the Saudi royal family.