\n WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was on Monday given permission to appeal a decision to extradite him to the United States where he could face a lifetime in prison.\n<\/p>\n
\n Washington wants to put the 50-year-old Australian on trial in connection with the publication of 500,000 secret military files relating to the US-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.\n<\/p>\n
\n The High Court in London in December overturned a lower court's ruling not to send him to the United States on the grounds he would be a suicide risk.\n<\/p>\n
\n But lawyers for Assange then challenged the decision, arguing that the country's highest court should rule on \"points of law of general public importance\".\n<\/p>\n
\n \"The respondent's application to certify a point of law is granted,\" said judges Ian Burnett and Timothy Holroyde in a written ruling.\n<\/p>\n
\n The judges stated that they themselves were not granting him a right of appeal at the Supreme Court but Assange had the right to do so himself.\n<\/p>\n
\n It is now for the Supreme Court to decide whether to take the case.\n<\/p>\n
\n - Supporters' relief -\n<\/p>\n
\n Assange's fiancee and the mother of his two young children, Stella Moris, emerged from the court smiling and visibly relieved.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"What happened in court today is precisely what we wanted to happen,\" she said.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"The situation now is that the Supreme Court has to decide whether it will hear the appeal. But make no mistake, we won today in court.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"If there were justice, the crimes that Julian exposed -- war crimes, the killing of innocent civilians -- would not be impugned.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"Our fight goes on. We will fight this until Julian's free.\"\n<\/p>\n
\n Crowds gathered outside the Royal Courts of Justice in central London and welcomed the decision.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"I'm relieved beyond words,\" said Sue Barnett, 61, from Nottingham, central England, holding a placard stating: \"10 years enough. Free Assange now.\"\n<\/p>\n
\n \"We were all fearing the worst.\"\n<\/p>\n
\n Assange could be jailed for up to 175 years in the United States, although the exact sentence is difficult to estimate.\n<\/p>\n
\n WikiLeaks editor Kristinn Hrafnsson hailed Monday's ruling as a \"partial victory\", calling the US charges against Assange were \"a blatant terrorist attack on press freedom worldwide.\"\n<\/p>\n
\n - Protracted case -\n<\/p>\n
\n At a two-day hearing in October, US lawyers argued that a lower court judge had not given sufficient weight to other expert testimony about Assange's mental state.\n<\/p>\n
\n They also pointed to diplomatic assurances provided since the January decision that Assange would not be held in punishing isolation at a federal supermax prison, and would receive appropriate care.\n<\/p>\n
\n Approving that appeal, two judges accepted the new assurances, noting they were not unusual in such cases and \"solemn undertakings offered by one government to another\".\n<\/p>\n
\n They ordered the case to be returned to Westminster Magistrates' Court with the direction that it be sent to interior minister Priti Patel for the final say.\n<\/p>\n
\n Assange has been held at London's high-security Belmarsh prison since 2019 because he is seen as a flight risk, having previously skipped bail in 2012 over claims he sexually assaulted two women in Sweden.\n<\/p>\n
\n He spent seven years at Ecuador's embassy in London to avoid being removed to Sweden to face the allegations that were later dropped.\n<\/p>\n
\n A coalition of anti-war groups and thousands of peace campaigners on Friday signed a statement calling for his immediate release.\n<\/p>\n
\n Moris said he had spent longer in Belmarsh than many prisoners sentenced for violent crimes.\n<\/p>\n
\n Nathan Fuller, director of the Courage Foundation, said: \"While the Biden administration is confronting US adversaries over their press freedom shortcomings, it should address its own hypocrisy.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"Locking up Julian Assange for exposing the truth about US wars is an insult to all those struggling for peace and human rights.\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was on Monday given permission to appeal a decision to extradite him to the United States where he could face a lifetime in prison. Washington wants to put the 50-year-old Australian on trial in connection with the publication of 500,000 secret military files relating to the US-led wars in Iraq and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[553],"tags":[],"ji_location":[],"class_list":["post-86899","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-feed"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n