The Australian WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange will find out today whether he will be extradited to the US on espionage charges.
Hundreds of people have been gathering outside the court for two days in support of Assange and one person claimed they were “really, really frightened”.
In 2010, WikiLeaks rose to prominence after it released a video of a US military helicopter which showed civilians being killed in the Iraqi capital Baghdad.
It also released more than 90,000 classified US military documents on the war in Afghanistan and about 400,000 secured US files on the Iraq war.
People have rallied outside court
GB News
Speaking to GB News one of the supporters outside court said: “If the judges today accept what the US reassurances are then I have lost faith in the British justice system.”
Another said: “I want Julian Assange to be released, it is essential to stop tyranny and freedom of the press.”
She added: “I’m so nervous, I am really, really frightened. I just hope to God he is not sent back to the USA.”
Another supporter said: “I’m expecting another travesty of justice, I don’t think anything is going to happen. The British Government and the Establishment have been putting this off and fobbing around for nearly ten years.”
The leaks have been described as “the largest security breaches of their kind in US military history”.
In 2019, the US Department of Justice described the leaks as “one of the largest compromises of classified information in the history of the United States”.
Julian Assange is held in a high security prison in London
PA
Assange has been in London’s high-security Belmarsh prison since 2019, for breaching bail conditions in a separate case.
He has been kept there while the US extradition case proceeds, because of his history of absconding.
If the two judges on the panel at the High Court – Dame Victoria Sharp and Mr Justice Johnson – refuse to allow Assange to challenge the extradition order, then his only route to stop the US Marshalls arriving on a flight is the European Court of Human Rights.
One supporter said that they were frightened about the outcome
GB News
However, this may be challenging as the ECHR in Strasbourg has an established and settled position on sending suspects from the UK to the US – and generally concludes that they will be treated in a way that does not breach their human rights.
If today’s ruling goes against Assange, he will be given time to ask the ECHR to intervene, but there is no certainty it will.
If he wins permission to appeal, the whole case will go away again, likely for months, while the full challenge is prepared.