Human rights: Wikileaks boss: Assange could be extradited soon

According to his colleagues, Wikileaks founder Julian Assange could soon lose the legal battle against his extradition to the United States. That said Wikileaks editor-in-chief Kristinn Hrafnsson of the German Press Agency in London.

The 51-year-old Australian is still awaiting a decision on an appeal his lawyers filed with the London High Court last summer. The British government had previously approved the extradition requested by Washington. Assange plans to appeal against this.

If an appeal is not allowed, Hrafnsson says it would be “scandalous”. In the case of Assange, however, “everything is possible,” according to the Wikileaks boss.

There are still other legal options, such as an application for a revision, an appeal to the Supreme Court or an appeal to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), but all of this can be exhausted “within weeks”. In addition, it is not certain whether the government will follow a decision by the judges in Strasbourg.

USA wants extradition

The legal tug of war over Assange has been going on for years. The US judiciary wants to put him on trial for allegations of espionage. If convicted, he faces up to 175 years in prison. Assange is accused of having, together with whistleblower Chelsea Manning, stolen and published classified material from US military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, thereby endangering the lives of US informants. Supporters see Assange as a journalist who exposed war crimes.

Assange has been held in Belmarsh Maximum Security Prison since his arrest in April 2019. Before that, he had evaded law enforcement for several years in the Ecuadorian embassy in London. The Australian government is now calling for an end to the prosecution of Assange.