There were gasps of relief from his wife and supporters at the high court in London on Monday as judges granted Assange leave to challenge his extradition on the grounds of whether removal would be compatible with the right to freedom of expression under the European convention on human rights, regarded as having the functional equivalent of the US first amendment, and on the grounds that he might be prejudiced at his trial or punished by reason of his nationality.
Assange has been indicted on 17 espionage charges and one charge of computer misuse, exposing him to a maximum of 175 years in prison, over his website’s publication of a trove of classified US documents almost 15 years ago.
US prosecutors allege that Assange, 52, encouraged and helped the army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning steal diplomatic cables and military
files that WikiLeaks published, putting lives at risk.
Kristinn Hrafnsson, the editor-in-chief of WikiLeaks, said after the ruling that there was “finally a glimmer of hope” for Assange, and it would be for his lawyers to decide if they also wanted to press for him to be released on bail.
Assange was not in court for health reasons, his legal team said, but those present included his wife, Stella, and his father, John Shipton.
Speaking to supporters outside the high court after the hearing, Stella Assange said the US president, Joe Biden, was “running out of time to do the right thing” and drop the legal pursuit of her husband.
“We are relieved as a family that the courts took the right decision today but how long can this go on for? Our eldest son just turned seven,” she said.
“All their memories of their father are in the visiting hall of Belmarsh prison, and as the case goes along, it becomes clearer and clearer to everyone that Julian is in prison for doing good journalism, for exposing corruption, for exposing the violations on innocent people in abusive wars for which
there is impunity.”
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