On Tuesday, a UK court decided that Julian Assange, the founder of Wikileaks, will not be extradited to the United States.
The court has asked for guarantees from the US regarding Assange’s First Amendment protections and assurance that he would not face capital punishment from the US authorities for his role in leaking confidential information.
If the US does not provide guarantees, Assange, an Australian citizen, will have the opportunity to appeal his extradition in May.
CBS News reported:
A U.K. court has ruled that Julian Assange will not be immediately extradited to face charges in the United States, giving the U.S. government three weeks to “offer assurances” that the American justice system will abide by several specific tenets in its handling of the WikiLeaks founder’s case.
The British court said Assange “has a real prospect of success on 3 of the 9 grounds of appeal” he has argued. Specifically, the court demanded that U.S. justice officials confirm he will be “permitted to rely on the First Amendment to the United States Constitution (which protects free speech), that he is not prejudiced at trial (including sentence) by reason of his nationality, that he is afforded the same First Amendment protections as a United States citizen and that the death penalty is not imposed.”
The court said that if those U.S. government assurances are not given within the three week timeframe, Assange will be granted leave to file a new appeal in the U.K. with further hearings for representations to be made by both parties.
“Mr. Assange will not, therefore, be extradited immediately,” the court said in its judgment on Tuesday.
Assange is accused of several criminal offenses relating to his role in publishing classified information.
The most prominent accusation against Assange is that he conspired with former U.S. Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning to illegally obtain and disclose a vast trove of classified military and diplomatic documents in 2010.
These documents, which were published on WikiLeaks website, included sensitive information about U.S. military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as diplomatic cables detailing private conversations between world leaders.
Assange is also accused of aiding and abetting Manning in her efforts to hack into government computer systems in order to obtain the classified documents.
Additionally, he has been accused of sexual assault by two women in Sweden, although these charges were later dropped.
The United States government has sought Assange’s extradition from the United Kingdom to face trial on charges of espionage and hacking related to the publication of the classified documents.
Assange has argued that he is a journalist and publisher who should be protected under freedom of speech laws, but the U.S. government maintains that his actions endangered national security and put lives at risk.
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