WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange may be at risk of extradition to the United States over the massive leak of classified government documents. The newspaper said the British court was ready to make a final decision on Monday. new york post.
The development finally brings to an end a 13-year legal battle and detention. The whistleblower spent seven years in self-imposed exile inside the Ecuadorian embassy in London. However, he has been held in a maximum security prison in London since 2019.
“Julian was charged with receiving, possessing, and communicating to the public information evidence of war crimes committed by the United States government.”
Two judges at London’s High Court will make the final decision on whether Assange will be sent to the United States to face penalties. The court will have to decide whether it is satisfied with the United States’ guarantee that Assange, 52, will not face the death penalty if he is sent to the Atlantic Ocean.
Mr. Assange’s lawyers said there were three possible outcomes of Monday’s ruling. The report said he could be extradited to the United States, released from prison altogether, or spend more time in legal battles over the coming months.
The WikiLeaks founder has been charged with 17 counts of espionage and one count of computer abuse. If he is convicted, he could face up to 175 years in prison, but one source said U.S. authorities have indicated that his sentence is likely to be significantly reduced. ing. Second report.
Assange’s supporters say he works as a journalist to uncover and expose U.S. military crimes and is protected under the First Amendment’s freedom of the press. are doing.
Among the many files released by WikiLeaks was a video of an Apache helicopter flown by an American that killed 11 people in Baghdad in 2007. Two of the dead were Reuters reporters.
“Julian has been charged with receiving, possessing, and communicating to the public evidence of war crimes committed by the United States government,” said Stella Assange, Julian’s wife.
“Reporting a crime is never a crime.”
Despite these revelations, U.S. lawyers maintain that Mr. Assange is guilty of attempting to hack into Pentagon computers and that WikiLeaks publications about U.S. military activities were used by U.S. intelligence sources in Afghanistan and Iraq. It said it posed a “grave and imminent danger.”
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