Julian Assange wins right to appeal extradition in UK Supreme Court

PTI

London, January 24

WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange was on Monday granted permission from the Supreme Court to appeal against his extradition order to the US.

The 50-year-old is wanted in America over the leak of thousands of classified documents related to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. His lawyers argued that he should not be taken to the US because of a real and “oppressive” risk of suicide.

Last month, the US authorities won an appeal against a previous court ruling that he could not be extradited due to concerns over his mental health.

US authorities later provided assurances that the WikiLeaks founder would not face the severely restrictive conditions that his lawyers said would put his physical and mental health at risk.

The High Court overturned the lower court’s decision in December, noting American “solemn undertakings” were enough to guarantee Assange would be treated humanely.

Now, Assange has secured the right to seek appeal against that ruling in the Supreme Court based on a point of law that is of “general public importance”, which could potentially have a far-reaching impact of setting fresh precedent in extradition cases.

If he had failed to meet the extremely high bar to be allowed the appeal, Assange’s case would have gone directly to UK Home Secretary Priti Patel for a final decision on extradition.