In a preliminary victory against censorship, Julian Assange has been granted a temporary lifeline in his legal battle to avoid extradition to the US. A recent ruling by two judges allows the WikiLeaks founder the possibility of appealing his case. However, the option to escalate his appeal is contingent on the lack of necessary assurances presented to the court by the governments of both the US and the UK.
Victoria Sharp, the president of the king’s bench division, and Justice Johnson have asserted that Assange has a reasonable chance of winning on three of the nine grounds he had presented. Despite this, the judges opted to defer the decision on Assange’s leave to appeal application. This move was designed to allow respondents an adequate opportunity to provide the needed assurance on pertinent matters.
In a written judgment released on Tuesday morning, Sharp elaborated on the potential decision-making process. She said that if the respondents failed to adequately supply assurances, the leave to appeal would be granted without another hearing. In contrast, if assurances were given, additional input would be requested from both parties before a final decision on the appeal application is made.
Sharp further clarified that these assurances must address pertinent concerns. These include Assange’s rights to rely on the First Amendment, not being discriminated against at trial due to his nationality, being afforded the same First Amendment protections as an American citizen, and the assurance of the death penalty not being imposed.
The stakes for this case are high. Should Assange’s request to appeal have been denied, he could have been swiftly extradited to face espionage charges in the US. Such an extradition would relate to his and WikiLeaks’ publication of numerous classified documents and diplomatic communications related to the Afghanistan and Iraq wars and the revealing that the US may have engaged in war crimes. His legal team contended during the two-day hearing that the charges were politically motivated in nature and that the extradition request should be deemed unlawful.
The respondents are now under a time constraint, with a deadline of April 16 to file the required assurances. If they are unable to meet this deadline, Assange will automatically be granted leave to appeal.
However, if assurances are indeed filed by the deadline, the parties will be asked for additional written contributions concerning the leave to appeal. A hearing has been tentatively scheduled for May 20 in such a scenario.
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