Julian Assange has won a potentially crucial victory in his long-running legal battle against US attempts to extradite him from the UK to face trial on espionage charges.
Supporters of the founder of the WikiLeaks website erupted in cheers outside the high court in London after judges ruled that he should be allowed to bring a fresh appeal against his extradition.
Assange’s family had feared that he could be on his way to the US as soon as this week if the judges had accepted assurances provided by the US government, including about how a trial would be conducted. In the event, the case will rumble on into the rest of this year and perhaps beyond.
Here is an explainer on how this point has been reached and what the case is about.
Why does the US want to extradite Assange from the UK?
After it was established in 2006 by Assange – an editor and activist in the emerging world of digital media – WikiLeaks incurred the wrath of the US in 2010 when it published classified US diplomatic and military documents.
These concerned American relations with other states as well as the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
The US wants to extradite Assange to face 18 charges – all except one under the Espionage Act – over WikiLeaks’s release of those thousands of records. The US has said that the leaking of confidential documents imperilled the lives of its agents.
What was Monday’s hearing in London about?
US authorities succeeded in 2021 in overturning a decision by a judge in a lower British court who ruled that Assange should not be sent to the US and citied a real and “oppressive” risk of suicide.
He was granted a reprieve earlier this year when judges ruled he could take his case to an appeal hearing unless “satisfactory” assurances were given by the US that he would be protected by and allowed to rely on the US first amendment – which protects freedom of speech there – that he is not “prejudiced at trial” due to his nationality, and that the death penalty would not be imposed.
On Monday, judges granted permission for Assange to mount his challenge over the freedom of speech and nationality points, meaning he will be able to bring the appeal. His legal team accepted an assurance he would not face the death penalty was an “unambiguous executive promise”.
What is at stake?
Assange’s supporters say that the case against him is politically motivated, having been resurrected under the administration of Donald Trump after Barack Obama dropped it.
They warn that if the US government is successful in using its 1917 Espionage Act to extradite Assange, then journalists around the world could be at the mercy of extradition to the US for breaking secrecy laws there.
Newspapers including the Guardian have also said in an open letter that obtaining and disclosing sensitive information in the public interest is a core part of journalism, adding: “If that work is criminalised, our public discourse and our democracies are made significantly weaker.”
Why is Assange still incarcerated in the UK?
Assange is an inmate at a high-security prison in south London. He has been denied bail in previous court hearings on the grounds that he is deemed to be a flight risk.
In April 2019, he was forcibly dragged from the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where he was seeking refuge, bringing to an end an extraordinary seven-year diplomatic stalemate. Ecuador had granted him asylum, saying there were fears his human rights might be violated if he was extradited to Sweden to face a rape allegation.
In 2019, Swedish authorities dropped their investigation into the allegation – always denied by Assange – but he remained in the embassy over fears of a US extradition.
What happens next?
Assange and his legal team will now spend months preparing for his appeal, which will cover whether or not the US courts will protect his right to free speech as an Australian citizen.
However, the decision on Monday means that the Australian has potentially much more legal road to run in his battle with the US, including a later appeal to the UK’s supreme court
If that fails, he could also seek an intervention by the European court of human rights, an international court based in Strasbourg that interprets the European convention on human rights, a treaty to which the UK is a signatory.
Could a political intervention change things?
The US president, Joe Biden, said last month he was considering a request from Australia to drop the decade-long US push to prosecute Assange, providing supporters of the publisher with a slim hope that the legal saga could be brought to a swift halt.
Australia has pressed for the US to drop its prosecution against Assange. In February, the Australian parliament passed a motion that called on the US and UK governments to allow Assange to return to his native country.
However, as the US presidential election and a potential Trump victory loom, Assange’s wife, Stella, said on Monday that “time is running out for Joe Biden to do the right thing”.
