The United States today won an appeal at Britain’s High Court over the extradition of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.
Friday’s ruling, which overturns an earlier decision, means 50-year-old Julian Assange is expected to be extradited to the United States from London’s high-security Belmarsh prison. Assange is facing spying charges over WikiLeaks’ publication of secret military documents a decade ago.
The home secretary, Priti Patel, who oversees law enforcement in the UK, will make the final decision on whether to extradite Assange.
But the legal saga is far from over, as the court ruling handed down on Friday is also likely to be appealed by Assange’s team.
Assange’s partner, Stella Moris, said the latest ruling was a “grave miscarriage of justice, and promised Assange’s legal team would “appeal this decision at the earliest possible moment”.
A lower court earlier this year had refused the American request to extradite Assange to the US, saying that Assange’s mental health was too fragile to withstand the US judicial system.
The US appealed, challenging that notion. A lawyer working for the US, James Lewis, said Assange “has no history of serious and enduring mental illness” and does not meet the threshold of being so ill that he cannot resist harming himself.
The High Court in London on Friday ruled that US assurances were enough to guarantee Assange would be treated humanely and directed a lower court judge to send the extradition request to the home secretary for review.
