LONDON — WikiLeaks’ founder Julian Assange’s battle to avoid extradition to the United States received a huge boost on Monday when London’s High Court ruled that US assurances over his case were unsatisfactory and he would get a full appeal hearing.
In March, the High Court provisionally gave Assange, 52, permission to appeal on three grounds. But it gave the US the opportunity to provide satisfactory assurances that it would not seek the death penalty and would allow him to seek to rely on a First Amendment right to free speech in a trial.
In a short ruling, two senior judges said the US submissions were not sufficient and said they would allow the appeal to go ahead.
Earlier on Monday, Assange’s lawyers told London’s High Court that he should not be extradited to the United States over the mass leak of secret US documents as he may not be able to rely on his right to free speech.
Hundreds of protesters gathered outside the court ahead of what could be the culmination of 13 years of legal battles.
Assange’s legal team say he could be on a plane across the Atlantic within 24 hours of the decision, but that he could also be released from jail, or find himself yet again bogged down in months of legal battles.
His lawyer Edward Fitzgerald said the judges should not accept the assurance given by US prosecutors that Assange could seek to rely upon the rights and protections given under the First Amendment, as a US court would not be bound by this.
“We say this is a blatantly inadequate assurance,” he told the court.
Fitzgerald accepted a separate assurance that Assange would not face the death penalty, saying the US had provided an “unambiguous promise not to charge any capital offence.”
The US said its First Amendment assurances were sufficient.
James Lewis, representing the US authorities, said in court documents that the assurance “cannot bind the courts,” but that the US courts would “take solemn notice and give effect so far as they are able to a promise given by the executive.”
Protesters gathered outside the court early on Monday, tying yellow ribbons to the iron railings, holding placards and chanting “Free, free Julian Assange”. In a plea to U.S. President Joe Biden, flags read “#Let him go Joe.”
One protester, Emilia Butlin, 54, told Reuters she wanted to show solidarity: “He, with his work, has offered tremendous service to the public, informing them about what governments are doing in their name.”
Assange’s wife Stella appeared in court with his brother and father, but Assange stayed away for health reasons, Fitzgerald said.
WikiLeaks released hundreds of thousands of classified US military documents on Washington’s wars in Afghanistan and Iraq – the largest security breaches of their kind in US military history – along with swathes of diplomatic cables.
In April 2010 it published a classified video showing a 2007 US helicopter attack that killed a dozen people in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, including two Reuters news staff.
The US authorities want to put the Australian-born Assange on trial on 18 charges, nearly all under the Espionage Act, saying his actions with WikiLeaks were reckless, damaged national security, and endangered the lives of agents.
His many global supporters call the prosecution a travesty, an assault on journalism and free speech, and revenge for causing embarrassment. Calls for the case to be dropped have come from human rights groups, media bodies and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, along with other political leaders.
