The London High Court paused its ruling on the appeal in the Julian Assange case on Tuesday, delaying any immediate move to extradite the founder of WikiLeaks to the United States. This postponement keeps the legal process in a state of flux, as the court weighs potential grounds for future challenges in the appeal process.
The judges, Victoria Sharp and Adam Johnson, spent weeks hearing the arguments from both sides. They noted that a possible appeal by Assange might gain ground in certain aspects, which led them to invite the United States government to provide assurances addressing those concerns. Such assurances would be evaluated to determine whether they could secure a favorable outcome for the defense during the appeal process.
The court’s ruling outlines a three-week deadline for the United States to offer satisfactory guarantees. These guarantees would ensure that Assange can invoke the First Amendment protections of free speech in his defense. The court also indicated that assurances are needed to prevent any national origin from affecting the trial, to extend the same First Amendment protections to the Australian as to a U.S. citizen, and to guarantee that the death penalty would not be imposed. If these assurances are not provided, the case would proceed with the possibility of an appeal still available to Assange, though new submissions could be heard in a hearing scheduled for May 20 to decide whether an appeal should move forward.
The United States seeks the extradition of Assange on 18 counts of espionage and computer intrusion, following WikiLeaks’ publication of material believed to reveal alleged war crimes by the United States in Iraq and Afghanistan between 2010 and 2011. The defense contends that these charges carry a potential prison sentence of up to 175 years in the United States, highlighting the severity of the penalties faced if extradition proceeds and the case goes to trial.
Assange first faced detention in 2010 amid a Swedish inquiry that was later archived. In 2012 he sought asylum in the Embassy of Ecuador in London, a status he retained until British authorities arrested him in 2019 after the country withdrew his asylum. Since then, he has been held at Belmarsh Prison on the outskirts of London, where he remains in custody while legal proceedings unfold and the extradition debate continues to captivate international attention.