London court rejects Julian Assange's appeal | News

The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom rejected this Friday the appeal that the defense of the journalist and founder of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, filed last summer against his extradition to the United States (USA), where he is accused of alleged conspiracy.

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The judge, Jonathan Swift, challenged, in a sentence of just three pages, the eight arguments put forward by the defense against the ruling signed by the then UK Home Secretary, Priti Patel, in June 2022.

However, Assange's wife, Stella Assange, declared through her Twitter account that on Tuesday of next week, her husband "will file a new appeal request with the High Court."

The defense has five business days to present a 20-page appeal before a two-judge panel that will convene a public hearing. After that, no further appeals at the national level will be possible, but Assange can still take the case to the European Court of Human Rights.

"We remain optimistic that we will win and Julian will not be extradited to the United States, where he faces charges up to life in a maximum-security prison for publishing truthful information revealing war crimes committed by the US government." his wife claimed.

To stop his extradition, the court would have to issue an emergency injunction, known as Rule 39, whereby a judge effectively blocks any action until further legal proceedings are completed to decide on the merits of a case.

Assange's appeal emphasized that Patel breached the US-UK Extradition Treaty, which provides that "extradition shall not be granted if the offense for which it is sought is a public offence."

In this sense, Assange's defense insists that the US request to extradite Assange is based on political motivations to silence and convict the Australian journalist after revealing information of public interest.

Assange is charged in the US territory for alleged conspiracy after publishing on WikiLeaks some 100,000 documents classified as "confidential" and another 15,000 as "secret", generated between 1966 and 2010, and which were leaked by officials in that country.

Washington asks for him 178 years in prison for a total of 18 charges. In June 2022, the British Justice approved his extradition to the North American country, a decision that was validated by the United Kingdom Government.