Assange Extradition Case to Formally Move to Political Stage – Fiancée

LONDON (Sputnik) – Julian Assange’s fiancée Stella Moris on Tuesday said that the extradition of the WikiLeaks founder to the United States on charges related to his publishing work “will formally move to a political stage” after he was denied permission to appeal his case before the UK Supreme Court.

“Now the extradition will formally move to a political stage. Julian's fate now lies in the hands of Home Secretary Priti Patel. This is a political case and she can end it,” Moris said in a statement.

On Monday, the UK top court refused to grant Assange permission to appeal against the London High Court decision to extradite him to the US, where he could face a lifetime in prison, arguing that the case "didn’t raise an arguable point of law."

Moris, who is set to marry the WikiLeaks founder in Belmarsh prison next week, noted, however, that Patel can end the United Kingdom's exposure to “international ridicule” because of his incarceration.

“It takes political courage but that is what it needed to preserve an open society that protects publishers from foreign persecution,” she added.

Assange has been on remand at the Belmarsh maximum-security prison in southeast London since October 2020, after serving an 11-month sentence for breaking bail conditions. In 2012, instead of appearing in court as his bail conditions demanded, Assange sought shelter in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where he remained until 2019 over concerns that he might otherwise end up extradited to the US.

In December, 2021, the London High Court ruled in favour of the US appeal to extradite Assange, overturning an earlier decision that the Australian journalist cannot be extradited to the US due to health issues and the inhumane conditions he might face in the US prison system.

Assange is wanted by the United States on espionage charges after WikiLeaks published thousands of classified documents that shed light on the atrocities committed by American troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. If put on trial and convicted in the US, Assange may be sentenced to up to 175 years in prison.