London High Court to Hear US Appeal on Assange Non-Extradition in Late October

LONDON (Sputnik) - The High Court in London ruled on Monday that it would hear the US government's appeal against the decision of a UK district court not to extradite WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in late October.

The court allowed the US to challenge the previous verdict in early July. During the preliminary appeal hearing held on Wednesday, civic leaders, activists, and politicians, including former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, gathered outside the London Palace of Justice in support of the journalist.

The appeal will be heard on 27-28 October, the judge said.

Back in January, UK district judge Vanessa Baraitser ruled against extraditing Assange to the United States, citing health reasons and the risk of suicide in the US prison system. The judge, however, decided that he must wait in prison for the outcome of a US appeal hearing.

The whistleblower, arrested in London on 11 April 2019, for jumping bail in 2012, faces up to 175 years in solitary confinement on espionage charges for leaking classified military documents on US war crimes in Afghanistan and Iraq. He was first sequestered at the Ecuadorean embassy in London and then imprisoned at Belmarsh prison for eleven years.