Julian Assange staves off extradition to US for now, UK court rules

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has fended off the threat of immediate extradition to the United States after the High Court in London said the US needed to provide more assurances.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has fended off the threat of immediate extradition to the United States after the High Court in London asked the US for more assurances. US authorities say Assange, 52, put lives at risk by publishing secret military documents and have for years been seeking his extradition on espionage charges. At a two-day hearing last month, Assange sought permission to appeal the UK’s 2022 approval of his extradition, arguing the case against him was politically motivated and that he would not face a fair trial. In a ruling Tuesday, a panel of two judges said Assange, an Australian citizen, would not be extradited immediately and gave the US three weeks to give a series of assurances around Assange’s First Amendment rights, and that he would not receive the death penalty. If the US fails to give these, Assange would be allowed to appeal his extradition at a hearing in May. The ruling potentially offers Assange an extraordinary lifeline in a years-long saga that saw him shoot to global prominence for revealing what he described previously to CNN as “compelling evidence of war crimes” committed by US-led coalition and Iraqi government forces. Assange has fought extradition for the last five years from London’s Belmarsh prison, and for seven years before that was holed up as a political refugee at the Ecuadorian embassy in the UK capital.