Julian Assange’s extradition to US on hold

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange will stay in the UK for now; his extradition to the US is being postponed. London's High Court said the United States must first offer assurances that Assange will not face death penalty. And the court had to initially decide whether to allow him contest the extradition ruling, with no talk of guaranteeing Assange’s life.

That's why Assange's wife Stella called the court's decision " utterly bizarre." In its written ruling, the court temporarily granted the WikiLeaks founder an extradition appeal right unless the US provides "satisfactory assurances" that Assange is not going to be executed. In short, if the US guarantees Assange’s life, the UK will send him to the States.

US prosecutors seek putting Assange, 52, on trial on criminal charges related to WikiLeaks' high-profile release of massive amounts of confidential US military records and diplomatic cables. They argue that the leakages have put the lives of American agents at risk, making this kind of “criminal activity” unjustified.

When Britain gave the go-ahead for Assange's extradition, his lawyers took a final shot to challenge the decision. In February this year, they reasoned that Australian-born Assange, who is not a US citizen, might not be able to invoke his First Amendment right to freedom of speech, which would exempt him from prosecution.

Meanwhile, none of the charges entails death penalty. But Assange's lawyers point to a comment by former US President Trump, who said the following in 2010, when commenting upon the WikiLeaks case: "I think there should be, like, death penalty or something." And this is noted in the current court ruling.

That is why the High Court of London has invited the US authorities to provide guarantees that the death penalty would not be applied to Assange. The court ruling stated that if those are still not there by April 16, Assange will be granted permission to appeal.

Assange's extradition might have been inevitable if the current court had simply refused his appeal. But the extradition has been postponed, and much depends on the US response. Without death penalty, he faces 175 years in prison. The next hearing is scheduled for May 20.

WikiLeaks first gained notoriety in 2010 when it released a video showing US troops shoot Baghdad civilians from helicopters in 2007. As a result, 18 people were killed. Subsequent revelations featured 250,000 documents of American diplomatic correspondence. This reportedly infuriated the American intel at CIA and NSA headquarters, and they foamed at their mouths. According to a source cited by Reuters, the leak’s scale exceeded that of Edward Snowden's revelations manifold.

The same 2010 saw Julian Assange's legal battles begin. He subsequently spent seven years hiding at the London embassy of Ecuador. The United States pressured that country’s authorities into handing Assange over to Britain in 2019. Since then, he has been held in southeast London-based Belmarsh maximum security prison.

Assange's supporters hail him as a journalism hero persecuted for exposing American crimes. Russia has opposed his transfer to the United States. State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin said that in such a case, all the countries that supported Assange’s deportation would cease to exist as rule-of-law states.