‘Now is the moment’: Push to drop case as Assange earns appeal
Source: WikiLeaks
Julian Assange’s supporters are hoping to seize the moment after the WikiLeaks founder won the right to appeal his extradition to the US where he faces espionage charges.
Assange was given permission to appeal after arguing at London’s High Court that he might not be able to rely on his right to free speech in a US court.
Australian-born Assange, 52, is wanted on 18 charges relating to WikiLeaks’ mass release of secret US documents 15 years ago – the largest security breaches of their kind in US military history.
In March, Britain’s High Court granted him provisional permission to appeal on grounds that he might be discriminated against as a foreign national, but invited the US to submit assurances.
After a hearing on Monday (British time), two senior judges said Assange’s argument that he might not be able to rely on the US First Amendment right to free speech deserved a full appeal – which is likely to be months away.
The news prompted cheering and singing from hundreds of supporters who had gathered outside the court tying yellow ribbons to the iron railings, holding placards and chanting “Free, free Julian Assange!”.
“As a family we’re relieved but how long can this go on?” said Assange’s wife Stella, who had been in court with his brother and father.
“The United States should read the situation and drop this case now.
“Now is the moment to do it.”
She told his supporters the ruling marked a turning point.
Assange himself was not in court, which his lawyer said was for health reasons. The US Justice Department declined to comment on a pending judicial matter.
Had Monday’s ruling gone against him, Assange’s team said he could have been on a plane to the US within 24 hours, ending more than 13 years of legal battles in Britain.
US prosecutors had told the court Assange could “seek to rely” upon the First Amendment protections granted to US citizens, and would not be discriminated against because of his nationality. But his legal team said a US court would not be bound by this.
“We say this is a blatantly inadequate assurance,” Assange’s lawyer Edward Fitzgerald told the judges.
The court also concluded that Assange’s appeal should apply to all 18 counts, not only three, as lawyers for the US had argued. Fitzgerald did, however, accept a separate US assurance that Assange would not face the death penalty.
Assange’s supporters outside the Royal Court of Justice in London. Photo: Getty
WikiLeaks released hundreds of thousands of classified US military documents on Washington’s wars in Afghanistan and Iraq along with swathes of diplomatic cables.
In April 2010 it published a classified video showing a 2007 US helicopter attack that killed a dozen people in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, including two Reuters news staff. US authorities say Assange’s actions with WikiLeaks were reckless, damaged national security, and endangered the lives of agents.
His many global supporters call the prosecution a travesty, an assault on journalism and free speech, and revenge for causing embarrassment. Calls for the case to be dropped have come from human rights groups, media bodies and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, along with other political leaders.
Assange was first arrested in Britain in 2010 on a Swedish warrant over sex crime allegations that were later dropped. Since then, he has been variously under house arrest, holed up in Ecuador’s embassy in London for seven years and, since 2019, held in the Belmarsh top security jail.
He married Stella there in 2022. The couple have two young children.
-with PA