Julian Assange updates: WikiLeaks founder’s bid to avoid US extradition
Second and final day of hearings at London’s High Court as Australian seeks new appeal.
This live page is now closed.
This live page is now closed.
- WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has made his final legal attempt to be allowed to appeal his extradition from the United Kingdom to the United States, where he is wanted on spying charges.
- Lawyers for US authorities told London’s High Court to block Assange’s bid to appeal, on the second and last day of hearings on Wednesday.
- Assange’s lawyers on Tuesday asked the court to grant him permission to appeal, arguing that US authorities are seeking to punish him for exposing serious criminal acts by the US government.
- If the judges rule against the Australian citizen, he can ask the European Court of Human Rights to block his extradition, but supporters worry he could be sent to the US before that happens.
A recap of today’s events
We will be closing this live page soon. Here’s what happened on the second and final day of the extradition hearing.
- The US side presented its arguments why the UK High Court should not permit Assange to appeal his extradition from the UK to the US.
- Lawyers for the US said the WikiLeaks founder should be extradited to face spying charges because he put innocent lives at risk by releasing hundreds of thousands of classified US government documents.
- They also said Assange could not be “treated as akin to an ordinary journalist or Wikileaks akin to an ordinary publisher”.
- The 52-year-old’s lawyers had told the court on Tuesday the case was politically motivated, arguing Assange was targeted for his exposure of “state-level crimes”.
- The judges said they would reserve their decision. It was not immediately clear when the verdict would be announced.
- Assange was again not in court on Wednesday, nor watching remotely, because of his poor health condition, his lawyers said.
Hearing ends
Proceedings have now ended inside the court.
As widely expect, the verdict will be announced at a later date.
Judge Sharp said the justices will reserve their decision and reach out to parties if they need additional information.
WATCH: What’s the alleged plot to kill or kidnap Assange?
In September 2021, Yahoo News reported that CIA officials had drawn up options for former US President Donald Trump’s administration for dealing with Assange while he was holed up in Ecuador’s embassy in London. They included assassinating or kidnapping him, it said.
Stella Assange the following month said the media report was a game-changer in his fight against extradition from the UK to the US.
“It shows the true nature, the true origins, the true criminality of the US actions against Julian,” she told reporters at the time.
You can find out more in the Listening Post episode below:
Assange’s legal team has intervened, with lawyers Edward Fitzgerald and Mark Summers pushing back against some of the arguments made by the US side, referencing among others alleged plot to kill or kidnap the WikiLeaks founder.
‘This has gone on long enough’
Andrew Wilkie, an Australian member of parliament attending the hearing, has said he hoped that the Australian parliament’s call last week for Assange to be allowed to return to his homeland sent a strong message to the UK and US governments to end the legal fight.
“This has gone on long enough,” he said.
In London to support Julian Assange’s hearing on whether he can appeal his extradition to the US. Julian’s extradition would strike at the very heart of free speech & democracy. Enough is enough. The US must drop the extradition of Julian Assange. #FreeAssageNow #auspol #politas pic.twitter.com/j3zpbpORI3
— Andrew Wilkie MP (@WilkieMP) February 21, 2024
The extradition hearings began in the United Kingdom in February 2020 and were due to resume in May of the same year, but were then delayed amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
In January 2021, Judge Vanessa Baraitser said Assange should not be sent to the United States due to his frail mental health, adding there was a risk he would attempt suicide.
Besides his mental health, Assange’s physical health has also declined in prison. In October 2021, he experienced a mini-stroke. He also broke a rib while coughing. His wife has said he has aged prematurely.
However, the US authorities won an appeal in December 2021 at London’s High Court against this decision, after giving a package of assurances about the conditions of Assange’s detention if convicted, including a pledge that he could be transferred to Australia to serve any sentence.
Australia’s ability to advance position ‘limited’
The government of Assange’s native Australia is among those to have asked for a rapid conclusion to the long-running legal process.
On February 14, Australia’s federal parliament passed a resolution supporting that the 2010 leak had “revealed shocking evidence of misconduct by the USA” and underlining “the importance of the UK and USA bringing the matter to a close so that Mr Assange can return home to his family in Australia”.
Anthony Albanese, the prime minister, pointed out that the resolution had the support of diverse political forces that “would have a range of views about the merits of Mr Julian Assange’s actions”.
Australia “has sought to advance that position by making appropriate diplomatic representations,” Donald Rothwell, a professor of international law at the Australian National University, told Al Jazeera. “However, its ability to advance that is limited by the fact that legally and politically the matter really rests with the UK and US.”
Case of ‘utmost importance’ for Assange’s wellbeing
Jordan Higgins, of the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom, has told Al Jazeera the case is not only a “critical juncture” for the future of press freedom.
“It is also one of utmost importance for the wellbeing of Julian Assange himself who may face life in prison in the US should he be extradited.”
More photos from outside the court
Assange’s lawyers have said he faced a US prison sentence of up to 175 years, but the US legal team disputes that in its argument.
Court resumes
The afternoon session of the hearing is now under way.
US side responds to alleged plan to kidnap or murder Assange
The lawyer for the US also responded to the WikiLeaks founder’s lawyers who cited an alleged US plan to kidnap or murder Assange while he was in London’s Ecuadorean embassy, reported by Yahoo News in 2021.
Dobbin said the US had given assurances about how Assange would be treated that “wholly undermine this suggestion … that anything could happen to him”.
Lawyers for US say Assange went ‘way beyond’ journalism
In its arguments, the legal team for the US government has tried to distance Assange from the profession of journalism, telling the court that the WikiLeaks founder went beyond journalism in his bid to solicit, steal and indiscriminately publish classified US government documents.
Lawyer Clair Dobbin argued that in encouraging Manning and others to hack into government computers and steal from them, Assange was “going a very considerable way beyond” a journalist gathering information.
Assange was “not someone who has just set up an online box to which people can provide classified information,” she said. “The allegations are that he sought to encourage theft and hacking that would benefit WikiLeaks.
Therefore Assange could not be “treated as akin to an ordinary journalist or Wikileaks akin to an ordinary publisher”, Dobbin said.
She added that it was not necessary for WikiLeaks to publish sensitive material, including names of those who could be endangered. Media outlets that went through the process of redacting the documents before publishing them are not being prosecuted, she said.
Stella Assange calls for march to Downing Street
In concluding her address to the pro-Assange crowd, Stella Assange called on them to stay outside the premises and march to Downing Street after the proceedings are over this afternoon.
Number 10 Downing Street is the official residence and the office of the British prime minister in London.
Stella Assange addresses crowd outside court
The human rights lawyer and Assange’s wife has just spoken to the crowd gathered outside the High Court in London.
She described the US case as “pathetic” and alleged that it was based on “lies”.
What they’re trying to argue is that state secrets trump revealing state crimes. This is the balance they’re trying to shift. They want impunity, they don’t want to be scrutinised and journalism stands in the way,” she told the cheering supporters.
“In that courtroom, they’re having to make their position increasingly clear. They have to admit that what they’re doing is criminalising journalism. It’s criminalising the truth,” she said.
“They are liars, they are criminals and they are persecuting the journalist who exposed them,” she added, calling her husband a “truthteller” and a “political prisoner”.
“The world is watching these courts in how they deal with this case.”
A recap of today’s developments so far
With the session now adjourned, let’s bring you up to speed with some of the US prosecution’s main arguments:
- Lawyer Clair Dobbin told the court that Assange’s prosecution is “based on the rule of law and evidence”.
- Dobbin also argued that the prosecution could not be political as it has been pursued by multiple US administrations
- The lawyer also said Assange damaged US security and intelligence services and “created a grave and imminent risk” by releasing the classified documents.
- Assange is not being prosecuted for his “political opinions”, Dobbin told the judges.
- WikiLeaks founder “indiscriminately and knowingly published to the world the names of individuals who acted as sources of information to the US”, she said.
Session adjourned
The court has now broken for lunch.
Reporters Without Borders renews call to ‘free Assange now’
The press freedom group has also called on the US government to cease Assange’s “endless persecution” and drop the 13-year-old case.
“No one should face such treatment for publishing information in the public interest,” said Rebecca Vincent, the media watchdog’s director of campaigns, said.
“It’s time to protect journalism, press freedom, and all of our right to know. It’s time to free Assange now.”
RSF's Rebecca Vincent speaking outside Julian Assange court hearing this morning: "RSF is engaged because of Julian Assange's contribution to journalism…he exposed war crimes and human rights violations…If he is extradited, the chilling effect will be enormous" #FreeAssange pic.twitter.com/O87pQ4IHW3
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) February 20, 2024
UN special rapporteur on torture urges UK authorities to halt extradition
Alice Jill Edwards earlier this month called on the UK government to halt the possible extradition of Assange to the US, urging authorities to consider his appeal based on substantial fears that, if extradited, he would be at risk of treatment amounting to torture or other forms of ill-treatment or punishment.
“Julian Assange suffers from a long standing and recurrent depressive disorder. He is assessed as being at risk of committing suicide,” Edwards said. “If extradited, he could be detained in prolonged isolation while awaiting trial, or as an inmate. If convicted, he could be sentenced to up to 175 years in prison,” she added.
“The risk of being placed in prolonged solitary confinement, despite his precarious mental health status, and to receive a potentially disproportionate sentence raises questions as to whether Mr Assange’s extradition to the United States would be compatible with the United Kingdom’s international human rights obligations,” the UN special rapporteur continued, noting that the US government’s assurances of “humane treatment” were not a sufficient guarantee.
“Diplomatic assurances of humane treatment provided by the Government of the United States are not a sufficient guarantee to protect Mr Assange against such risk,” Edwards said. “They are not legally binding, are limited in their scope, and the person the assurances aim to protect may have no recourse if they are violated.”
“I call on the Government of the United Kingdom to carefully review Mr Assange’s extradition order with a view to ensuring full compliance with the absolute and non-derogable prohibition of refoulement to torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment and to take all the necessary measures to safeguard Mr Assange’s physical and mental health,” the expert said.
A reminder that the two justices could deliver a verdict today or at a later date.
If it’s in Assange’s favour, a full appeal hearing will be held to again consider his challenge.
But if the WikiLeaks founder loses, his only remaining option would be at the European Court of Human Rights.
Stella Assange has said his lawyers would apply to the European judges for an emergency injunction if necessary.
Assange’s supporters argue that the WikiLeaks founder should be freed on humanitarian grounds, on addition to upholding fundamental press freedoms.
The 52-year-old has already spent seven years in the Ecuadorian embassy and since 2019, he has been in London’s high-security Belmarsh Prison.
Assange’s allies consider that his 11 years of imprisonment amount to punishment enough.
WikiLeaks editor Kristinn Hrafnsson called it “punishment through process”.
“It is obviously a deliberate attempt to wear him down to punish him by taking this long,” Hrafnsson recently told reporters.
From the archive: WikiLeaks video shows US attack
Here’s an Al Jazeera report from 2010 when WikiLeaks released video footage of a US military attack in Baghdad.
Drop extradition ‘before it’s too late’, Amnesty International says
The rights group this week called for the case to be dropped “before it’s too late”, describing the US government’s “unrelenting pursuit” of the WikiLeaks founder as “nothing short of a full-scale assault on the right to freedom of expression”.
“If Julian Assange is extradited, it will establish a dangerous precedent wherein the US government could target publishers and journalists around the world for extradition and prosecution,” Rose Kulak, Amnesty’s Australia campaigner, said in a statement.
“There is a very real risk that other countries could take the US example and follow suit.”
Assange’s wife, brother at London’s High Court today
More from lawyer for US side
US prosecutors allege Assange encouraged and helped Manning steal diplomatic cables and military files that WikiLeaks later published.
Lawyer Clair Dobbin told the judges that Assange damaged US security and intelligence services and “created a grave and imminent risk” by releasing the classified documents – risks that could harm and lead to arbitrary detentions of innocent people.
Dobbin alleged that by encouraging Manning to hack into government computers and steal from them, Assange was “going a very considerable way beyond” a journalist gathering information.
Assange denies wrongdoing, and his legal team argued that US authorities were seeking to punish him for WikiLeaks’s “exposure of criminality on the part of the US government on an unprecedented scale”, including torture and killings.