Britain’s High Court has granted the U.S.
government permission to appeal a decision
that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange
cannot be sent to the United States to face
espionage charges.
The judicial office said this week that the
appeal had been granted and the case
would be listed for a High Court hearing. No
date has been set.
In January, a lower court judge refused an
American request to send Assange to the
U.S. to face spying charges over WikiLeaks’
publication of secret military documents a
decade ago. District Judge Vanessa Baraitser
denied extradition on health grounds, saying
Assange was likely to kill himself if held
under harsh U.S. prison conditions.
The judge ordered that Assange must
remain in prison during any potential U.S.
appeal, ruling that the Australian citizen “has
an incentive to abscond” if he were freed.
Assange, 50, has been in London’ high-
security Belmarsh Prison since he was
arrested in April 2019 for skipping bail seven
years earlier during a separate legal battle.
Assange spent seven years holed up inside
Ecuador’s London embassy, where he fled
in 2012 to avoid extradition to Sweden
to face allegations of rape and sexual
assault. Sweden dropped the sex crimes
investigations in November 2019 because so
much time had elapsed.
U.S. prosecutors have indicted Assange on
17 espionage charges and one charge of
computer misuse over WikiLeaks’ publication
of thousands of leaked military and