British court authorizes Julian Assange to appeal his extradition to the US | News

The High Court in London authorized this Monday that the Australian journalist Julian Assange appeal to the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom a previous verdict, by which his extradition to the United States (USA) was approved to be tried on 18 counts.

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According to the opinion, the High Court grants a period of 14 days for the founder of Wikileaks to present his case before the Supreme Court.

However, it did not allow him to file a direct appeal, which means that the Supreme Court will decide whether to hear the case or not.

Assange is a victim of political persecution by the US Government, because through the Wikileaks portal he denounced the crimes against humanity committed by the White House in the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, the extrajudicial detentions in the prison located in the illegal US military base in Guantanamo (Cuba) and other issues.

On December 10, the England and Wales Court of Appeal approved Assange's extradition to the US, a measure that had been previously rejected by a London district court judge.

This magistrate argued that Assange was likely to commit suicide if forced to face harsh conditions in US prisons. However, US authorities assured that the journalist would not face harsh treatment.

Following that compromise, the England and Wales Court of Appeal reversed the district court's decision and found that the US promises helped ensure that Assange was treated humanely.

Due to his denunciations, Assange is considered a hacker. The 18 charges of espionage and computer intrusion imputed to him by the US Attorney's Office would place him before a sentence of up to 175 years in prison.

Despite the efforts of the defense, the founder of Wikileaks continues to be held in the Belmarsh high-security prison, near London, since April 11, 2019, when he was detained inside the Ecuadorian Embassy after the former president Lenin Moreno withdrew the asylum granted by his predecessor, Rafael Correa.