Two British court judges have granted Julian Assange leave to prepare for a second appeal against his extradition to the United States on charges of leaking military secrets. wikileaks.
As a result, Assange would be able to challenge assurances from American officials about how his trial there would be conducted if extradited, the paper said. guardian.
“We say this is clearly insufficient assurance.”
The report noted that two British judges, Justice Victoria Sharp and Justice Johnson, postponed a final decision on whether Mr. Assange should appeal again to March. Mr Assange is trying to avoid extradition to the US after releasing thousands of classified documents, some of which the US government believes pose a risk to Americans.
Had the court ruled that the extradition could proceed, the whistleblower would have had no choice. His lawyers said he could have been on a plane to the United States within 24 hours to face charges.
Assange’s lawyer, Edward Fitzgerald, told the judge that his client should reject U.S. assurances that he can seek First Amendment protections because U.S. courts are not bound by them. He is said to have said that. NBC News.
Mr Fitzgerald told the court: “I submit that this is clearly an insufficient guarantee.”
However, Mr Fitzgerald reportedly accepted a second guarantee that Mr Assange would not face the death penalty if he were to be sent to the US for prosecution. He noted that the United States had made “a clear commitment not to prosecute any capital crimes.”
Now, it could be several months before another appeal is heard.
Mr Assange’s wife said she wanted to be present to hear the verdict, but the whistleblower did not attend the sentencing for health reasons.
Assange has been fighting against extradition for 13 years, including seven years in self-imposed exile at the Ecuadorian embassy in London. After his release from the embassy, he was held in a maximum security prison in London.
Mr. Assange faces 17 charges of espionage and one charge of computer abuse in the United States. Among the classified documents Mr. Assange released on WikiLeaks is that an Apache helicopter piloted by an American was shot in Baghdad in 2007. It also included a video of the killing of 11 people, including two Reuters journalists.
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