WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange will get one last chance to avoid extradition to the United States during a British court hearing in March, the WikiLeaks organisation said on Tuesday on X.
Earlier, WikiLeaks said a decision on Assange’s case was expected “shortly.” It wrote on its page on X:
“March: Decision on Julian Assange final UK appeal.”
Last week, a British court held a hearing on the US request for Assange’s extradition. Judges Victoria Sharp and Jeremy Johnson said they would deliver their judgement later.
Edward Snowden, a former US National Security Agency official, said a week ago that the possible extradition of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to the United States by British authorities would be a violation of the US-UK extradition treaty. Snowden wrote on X:
“The outrageous part of the UK’s years-long trial to condemn Julian Assange to die in an American dungeon is that the victim of his crime (journalism) is a state rather than a person — the definition of a political offence, which the US-UK extradition treaty explicitly forbids.”Â
He also called on political leaders and journalists not to keep quiet about Assange’s trial as they can still “have a real influence on its outcome”.
The US authorities have been trying to secure the extradition of the Wikileaks founder since his arrest in 2019. Assange faces 18 criminal charges, under which he faces a total of up to 175 years in prison. They are related to the publication by WikiLeaks of tens of thousands of classified US government documents, including diplomatic correspondence and information about US military offences in third countries.
