The Westminster Magistratesʼ Court in London issued a warrant for the extradition to the United States of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.
This was reported by Reuters.
The decision on extradition will be made by the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Priti Patel. Assange has the right to appeal if it is decided to extradite him.
In the United States, Assange has been charged with nearly two dozen counts of espionage and hacking. He faces up to 175 years in prison there.
- Julian Assange is an Australian online journalist and TV presenter. He founded WikiLeaks, which published a number of top-secret articles about spy scandals, high-level corruption, war crimes, and diplomatic secrets of several countries. Assange was detained in the UK in April 2019 at the Ecuadorian embassy in London. He has been hiding there since 2012, trying to avoid extradition to Sweden, where he was accused of sexual harassment and rape (later the Swedish authorities closed the case ).
- In May 2019, US authorities charged Assange with up to 175 years in prison. Assange is wanted in connection with the publication of thousands of secret documents. The United States says the leak was a violation of the law and a threat to human life. Assange has been charged with 18 counts, including conspiracy to hack into U.S. military database systems to obtain confidential information about the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
- Assangeʼs lawyers claim that their client acted as a journalist and had the right to publish documents exposing US military offenses in Iraq and Afghanistan.
- In April 2019, the Ecuadorian authorities deprived Assange of political asylum, and he had to leave the embassy. At the same time, British police arrested him. On January 4, 2021, the Central Criminal Court in London refused to extradite Assange to the United States for fear of his mental health. The judge explained that Julian had symptoms of depression and suicidal tendencies.
- However, in December 2021, a London court allowed Assange to be extradited to the United States.