UK to Toss Assange Across the Pond

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s worst fears have come true; on Friday the United Kingdom approved of his extradition to the United States despite his efforts to evade arrest for the past seven years. The Australian journalist first sought political asylum at the Ecuadorian embassy in London in 2012.

UK Home Secretary Priti Patel has signed an order to hand over Assange to the US, where he will face espionage and hacking charges for his work as an activist in organizing and directing the non-profit WikiLeaks, which publishes classified media online.

According to both his wife and attorneys, Julian Assange, 50, is “certain” to die while in US custody. His attorneys argue that he would be at a high risk of suicide were he to be placed in US custody. His wife Stella Morris, 38, says the US legal system has “many issues” but that her husband’s case is “unique."

“He has been persecuted for over a decade, he is charged in a way that prevents him from being able to mount a defense, and his health is deteriorating to such a degree that his body may not be able to take the strain,” Morris wrote in an email to The Independent. She described the US as a foreign power “that is out for revenge” against Assange for exposing their “committed crimes."

Assange’s legal team—which includes human rights lawyer Jennifer Robinson with Doughty Street Chambers in London—announced on Friday that they would appeal the order and attempt to take Assange’s case to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France. But the Home Office argued that they “have not found” that it would be "oppressive, unjust or an abuse of process" to extradite Assange.

“Allowing Julian Assange to be extradited to the US would put him at great risk and sends a chilling message to journalists the world over,” Agnes Callamard, Amnesty International secretary-general, said in a statement Friday.

Assange faces up to 175 years in US prison on 18 criminal charges.