The decision now rests with interior minister Priti Patel, although Assange’s lawyers may still appeal to the High Court if she approves the extradition…reports Asian Lite News
A UK court on Wednesday issued a formal order to extradite WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to the United States to face trial over the publication of secret files relating to the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
The decision now rests with interior minister Priti Patel, although Assange may still appeal within 14 days of any decision to approve the extradition.
The ruling Wednesday by a magistrate in central London brings the long-running legal saga in the UK courts closer to a conclusion.
But Assange’s lawyers have vowed to make representations to Patel and potentially launch further appeals on other points in the case.
“No appeal to the High Court has yet been filed by him in respect of the other important issues he raised previously,” his lawyers Birnberg Peirce Solicitors said in a statement last month.
“That separate process of appeal has, of course, yet to be initiated.”
Assange was last month denied permission to appeal to the UK Supreme Court against moves to extradite him to the US, where he could face a lifetime in prison.
Washington wants to put him on trial in connection with the publication of 500,000 secret military files relating to the US-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
In January last year, the 50-year-old Australian appeared to have won a reprieve on the grounds he was a suicide risk if he was kept in solitary confinement at a maximum security US facility.
But the US government appealed, and at a two-day appeal hearing in October its lawyers pointed to diplomatic assurances that Assange would not be held in punishing isolation at a federal supermax prison, and would receive appropriate care.
Assange appealed that ruling and, in January, two judges allowed him to apply to the country’s highest court on “points of law of general public importance”.
But the court refused permission to appeal, saying the application “didn’t raise an arguable point of law”.
Last month, Britain’s Supreme Court had refused Assange permission to appeal against a High Court decision to extradite him to the US to face espionage charges.
A Supreme Court spokesperson said that the appeal “did not raise an arguable point of law”, Xinhua news agency reported.
In December 2021, Britain’s High Court ruled that Assange can be extradited to the US, as it overturned a lower court ruling based on concerns about Assange’s mental health and risk of suicide in a maximum-security prison in the US.
Assange’s lawyers had sought to appeal against the High Court’s decision at the Supreme Court.
Assange, 50, is wanted in the US on allegations of disclosing national defense information following WikiLeaks’s publication of hundreds of thousands of leaked military documents relating to the Afghanistan and Iraq wars a decade ago.
He has been held at south London’s high-security Belmarsh Prison since 2019.
Lawyers for the US said earlier that Assange would be allowed to transfer to Australia, his home country, to serve any prison sentence he may be given.
