Extradition of Julian Assange: British justice must soon decide

Hearings take place on Tuesday and Wednesday in London for determine whether the Australian whistleblower can be allowed to appeal the extradition order that has already been issued against him in 2022.

This could be his last chance to avoid being tried in the United States.

Hundreds of people flocked to the Royal Court in the British capital to show their support for the 52-year-old, who has been imprisoned in the United Kingdom since 2019.

His wife Stella Assange also made the trip. She denounced “an attack on all journalists around the world“, and wanted to warn: what happened to the Russian Alexei Navalny could, according to her, happen to her husband.

Why is Julian Assange facing extradition?

In the 2000s and 2010s, the Australian hacker published several documents and videos proving the murders of civilians in Afghanistan and Iraq, perpetrated by the American army.

**Washington accuses him of having endangered the United States by revealing confidential and sensitive national security documents via his WikiLeaks site. **

Julian Assange’s entourage has always campaigned against his extradition, highlighting his fragile mental health which could deteriorate significantly if he is sentenced to life imprisonment.

The United States, however, managed to reassure people about the detention conditions reserved for the whistleblower. British Minister Suella Braverman finally signed the American extradition request in 2022.

British justice must now decide whether or not to let Julian Assange appeal his extradition. The earliest the decision could be rendered is Wednesday, in the hours following the end of the two days of hearings.