{"id":2929,"date":"2024-02-20T05:04:02","date_gmt":"2024-02-20T05:04:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/index.php\/2024\/02\/20\/wikileaks-founder-in-last-ditch-bid-to-avoid-us-extradition\/"},"modified":"2024-02-20T05:04:02","modified_gmt":"2024-02-20T05:04:02","slug":"wikileaks-founder-in-last-ditch-bid-to-avoid-us-extradition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wikileaks-founder-in-last-ditch-bid-to-avoid-us-extradition\/","title":{"rendered":"Wikileaks founder in last-ditch bid to avoid US extradition"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Lawyers for Julian Assange are launching what could be his final bid to avoid extradition to the US to face trial over leaking military secrets.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The two-day hearing at the High Court in London is due to hear his team argue he should be allowed a full appeal.<\/p>\n

There is no guarantee that will be granted and if turned down, he could be handed over within weeks.<\/p>\n

Supporters of the Wikileaks founder say he exposed wrongdoing, but the US says Mr Assange put lives at risk.<\/p>\n

Originally from Australia, Mr Assange\u2019s mammoth legal battle began in 2010 when Wikileaks disclosed huge numbers of confidential military files from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan \u2013 including footage showing a United States helicopter gunning down civilians in Baghdad.<\/p>\n

He took refuge for seven years in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, before being arrested by the Metropolitan Police in 2019.<\/p>\n

The US demanded his extradition from the UK that year, saying the disclosures endangered lives.<\/p>\n

Two years later, a British judge ruled that while the US had shown it had a legitimate criminal case against Mr Assange, he could not be transferred because he may try to harm himself.<\/p>\n

The US later overturned that ruling after giving the UK new assurances about how it said Mr Assange would be humanely treated, including the possibility of spending any possible jail sentence in his native Australia.<\/p>\n

Its lawyers have also repeatedly denied claims from Mr Assange\u2019s campaign that he could be sentenced to 175 years in jail.<\/p>\n

At this week\u2019s hearing, Mr Assange\u2019s lawyers are expected to ask for permission to challenge the extradition order signed by the then UK home secretary Priti Patel almost two years ago.<\/p>\n

If they fail to convince judges there is anything wrong with that order, Mr Assange must be extradited within 28 days \u2013 unless he can convince the European Court of Human Rights to temporarily stop the aeroplane with a so-called \u201cRule 39\u201d order.<\/p>\n

Nick Vamos, the former head of extradition at the Crown Prosecution Service, said US Marshals could arrive in London within days if the High Court throws the case out.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a very high threshold for [the European Court of Human Rights to intervene], namely that there is \u2018an imminent risk of irreparable damage\u2019 to his human rights, which of course is one of the arguments the High Court in London would have just rejected,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Speaking to the BBC on Monday, Stella Assange\u00a0said her husband\u00a0would not survive in a US jail \u2013 and the case is politically-motivated.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis case will determine if he lives or dies,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Mr Assange has been kept at London\u2019s Belmarsh Prison since 2019 as the US extradition case proceeded.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The post Wikileaks founder in last-ditch bid to avoid US extradition<\/a> appeared first on KBC<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lawyers for Julian Assange are launching what could be his final bid to avoid extradition to the US to face trial over leaking military secrets. The two-day hearing at the High Court in London is due to hear his team argue he should be allowed a full appeal. There is no guarantee that will be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2929","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2929","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2929"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2929\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2929"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}