London court to decide Julian Assange's appeal against extradition today

Fifty-two old Assange has been in a high-security London prison since 2019 accused by the US of violations stemming from obtaining and publishing of classified US military records and cables on WikiLeaks in 2010.

While the US government argues that he had compromised the lives of agents, people who support Assange regard him as an anti-establishment hero, who is being persecuted by the US government for exposing its wrongdoings and committing alleged war crimes. WikiLeaks shot into the limelight in 2010 when it published a US military video showing a 2007 attack by Apache helicopters in Baghdad that killed a dozen people.

In April 2022, a London court ordered his extradition and this was approved by UK’s home secretary as well. Last month, two high court judges heard Assange's final appeal against the extradition and will today give their verdict at 4 pm. His first appeal had been turned down by the court.

Assange can then have a full appeals case which will be heard again in British court on new grounds. This means that there can be a new decision on his extradition or his extradition will be delayed.

In 2021, the court had denied his extradition on the grounds that there is a risk of suicide for Assange in a US prison. However, judges reversed that decision after the US gave them assurances. A lower court judge denied Assange request to appeal the extradition order and his lawyers asked the UK high court to overturn the move. And, this is the decision that is awaited from the two high court judges.

"This is it. Decision tomorrow," his wife Stella Assange posted on X on Monday. Stella, who Assange married in prison, has said it could be a life or death decision, saying her husband would not survive if he was sent to the United States.

If he loses the right to appeal he will be on a plane to the US ending his years long battle which began in 2010. And all the challenges his legal team can make in the UK courts will have been exhausted.

Media reports said that Assange, who has been held at Belmarsh prison since 2019, can appeal to the European Court of Human Rights to order the UK not to extradite him, while it considers his case.

If extradited to the US, he can be jailed there for up to 175 years.

During the hearings in February, Assange's team argued the prosecution was "politically motivated" and said he was being targeted for his exposure of "state-level crimes". According to his lawyers, former US President Donald Trump had asked "detailed options" on how to kill him.

Lawyers for the US government has argued that Assange was not being prosecuted for “mere publication” but for “aiding and abetting” or “conspiring with” the whistleblower Chelsea Manning to unlawfully obtain the documents in question, “undoubtedly committing serious criminal offences in so doing and then disclosing the unredacted names of sources (thus putting those individuals at grave risk of harm)”. The lawyers said that he can get a reduced sentence of about four to six years in prison for putting people's lives at risk.

Last week, Assange's US lawyer said his legal team felt there is no resolution to the case against him after a newspaper report that the US Justice Department was considering allowing him to plead guilty to a reduced charge.