On Friday, UK Home Secretary Priti Patel accepted Julian Assange’s extradition to the United States, where he is facing criminal accusations. An extradition order had been issued by a London court in April, but it was still pending because Patel needed to sign it.
Assange can yet file an appeal with the English High Court. If Assange refuses to surrender, he must be extradited within 28 days. He is now imprisoned at London’s Belmarsh jail.
Assange’s wife Stella, as well as Wikileaks, have stated that they will fight the extradition ruling.
According to the BBC, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has previously advocated Assange’s release. Assange is a citizen of Australia.
Jennifer Robinson, Assange’s Australian human rights lawyer, told the Sydney Morning Herald that the Australian government should petition the Biden administration to dismiss the charges. However, Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong released a statement claiming that Australia was not a party to the Assange case and that it was not entitled to assist in the legal affairs of another nation, according to the newspaper.
When Wikileaks, which he started in 2006, began posting secret and sensitive government and business papers for public consumption in the late 2000s, Assange rose to international celebrity. The most well-known “leaks” were documents from the US government claiming that the US military had murdered hundreds of civilians in unrecorded events during the Afghan war.
He’s wanted by the US government on 18 counts of breaking the Espionage Act and the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. It claims that Wikileaks got the material illegally, endangering the lives of its officials.
Assange was also proclaimed sought by the Swedish government in connection with a sexual assault prosecution against him that was abandoned after the statute of limitations ran out in 2019.
Assange’s woes began in 2010, when Sweden requested his extradition on the basis of two Swedish women accusing him of sexual assault. He rejected the allegations, claiming they were brought against him in order to send him to the United States for prosecution.
“Every extradition case is to be considered on its own particular merits,” the Swedish Prosecution Authority said. As a result, the Swedish government cannot promise that Julian Assange will not be extradited to the United States in the future.”
At 2012, Assange applied for refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy. When Assange’s appeal against extradition to Sweden was denied by the British Supreme Court, he broke his bail restrictions and went to the Ecuadorian embassy, where he was given asylum.
After Ecuador revoked Assange’s protections in 2019 for allegedly attempting to “destabilise” Ecuador’s government and violating the terms of his stay, the Australian native was taken from the embassy and detained by UK authorities.
Since then, Assange has been held in custody while extradition proceedings continue. Given his declining physical and mental state, his lawyers have also pushed for his release. In January 2021, a district court decided that if he was extradited, he may commit himself in a US jail. He was still barred from leaving the United Kingdom.
The London High Court decided in favour of the US government in December last year after the Joe Biden administration promised he would not be held in a maximum-security jail. If found guilty, he might spend his term in Australia if he so desires.
Assange attempted to appeal the decision at the British Supreme Court, but the court denied his request on March 14. Finally, in April, a London court issued an extradition order, which has now been signed.
