British justice on Tuesday asked the United States for new guarantees regarding the treatment that would be reserved for Julian Assange, without which it would grant the founder of Wikileaks a last appeal in the United Kingdom against his extradition.
The judges gave three weeks to the American authorities, who want to try the 52-year-old Australian for a massive leak of confidential documents, to provide these guarantees. They want to ensure that in the United States, Julian Assange will be able to benefit from the first amendment of the American Constitution which protects freedom of expression, and that he would not be sentenced to the death penalty, according to a summary of the judgment .
>> Details from Clément Bürge from London: British justice rules today on the fate of Julian Assange. Clément Bürge’s explanations. / 12:45 p.m. / 1 min. / today at 12:45
New guarantees requested
“If these assurances are not provided” within this deadline, Julian Assange will be able to appeal the decision to extradite him, granted in June 2022 by the British government, judges Victoria Sharp and Jeremy Johnson decided.
If they are, a new hearing will be held on May 20 before the judges decide whether they find these guarantees satisfactory, to decide whether or not Julian Assange can benefit from a last resort in the United Kingdom, in a case which has become a symbol of threats against press freedom.
European Court of Human Rights probably seized
Julian Assange’s supporters had in any case warned in the event of defeat that they would take the matter to the European Court of Human Rights in the hope of having the extradition suspended.
Julian Assange risks up to 175 years in prison for having published more than 700,000 confidential documents on American military and diplomatic activities, particularly in Iraq and Afghanistan, since 2010.
>> Read also: A final appeal by Julian Assange against his extradition to the United States examined in London
Among them is a video showing civilians, including two Reuters journalists, killed by fire from an American combat helicopter in Iraq in July 2007.
Julian Assange was arrested by British police in 2019 after seven years spent in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, in order to avoid extradition to Sweden in a rape investigation, dismissed the same year.