Assange Wins Temporary Reprieve As Court Seeks US ‘Assurances’ Over Extradition
Tuesday’s much anticipated London High Court ruling has gone mostly in Julian Assange’s favour, as he has been granted permission to continue to appeal his extradition to the United States, where he would face espionage and related charges for publishing state secrets. However, this is not yet a ‘win’ for Assange and his team, but more of another delay.
The court ruled that the WikiLeaks founder will not be extradited immediately and said the US still has the opportunity to provide “satisfactory assurances” related to his grounds of appeal. What happened Tuesday is tantamount to Assange’s ability to challenge the extradition request being slightly extended, and is a temporary reprieve, extending the whole process yet further.
But this is the part that is not looking good for Assange, as explained by WikiLeaks: “The court has given US Gov. 3 weeks to give satisfactory assurances: that Mr. Assange is permitted to rely on the First Amendment to the US Constitution; not prejudiced at trial by reason of his nationality; and that the death penalty is not imposed.”
A May 20 hearing, which has been scheduled, is expected to take up whether the US ‘assurances’ are satisfactory. An Al Jazeera correspondent has explained the decision as follows:
It was a highly nuanced decision in the end. The judges haven’t thrown out the grounds for an appeal hearing, they have essentially upheld them.
They basically said, “Yes, we understand that there is a basis here for an appeal – however, we are going to defer a decision on that until May 20,” when they called for a second hearing.
According to the judge’s statement, “We had an explicit statutory obligation not to order the applicant’s extradition if he could be sentenced to death for the offense concerned or if he could be charged with an extradition offense disclosed by the same facts in respect of which a sentence of death could be imposed.”
The statement reads further, “If assurances are given, then we will give the parties an opportunity to make further submissions before we make a final decision on the application for leave to appeal.”
Stella Assange, his wife, has warned that if the court rules against Assange, he could be on a plane to US soil days following. He would be removed from the high-security Belmarsh prison for a trial in the US on espionage-related charges and publishing state secrets, where a 175-year jail sentence would await him, likely at a federal ‘supermax’ prison.
