Lawyers for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange began appeal proceedings in the UK Supreme Court on Thursday, hoping to prevent his extradition to the United States, his fiancee said.
On December 10, the High Court overturned a first instance decision opposing the extradition of Julian Assange to the United States.
The latter accuse him of having circulated, from 2010, more than 700,000 classified documents on American military and diplomatic activities, in particular in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Read alsoBritish justice overturns on appeal the refusal to extradite Julian Assange to the United States
Prosecuted in particular for espionage, he risks if he is tried in the United States up to 175 years in prison.
This case represents, according to his supporters, a very serious attack on press freedom.
Julian Assange's fiancee Stella Moris said on Twitter that he filed an appeal on Thursday.
Stella Moris, a lawyer and the mother of her two children, explained that a decision on a possible green light for a review of the case in the Supreme Court was not expected until the third week of January.
During the appeal hearing about his extradition at the end of October, the United States sought to reassure the treatment that would be reserved for the founder of WikiLeaks.
Read alsoWikiLeaks: new attempt by the United States to extradite Julian Assange
The High Court magistrates stressed that the assurances provided by the United States were "
solemn undertakings offered by one government to another
."
Incarcerated in a high security prison near London for two and a half years, Julian Assange was arrested by British police in April 2019 after spending seven years in the London Embassy in Ecuador where he had taken refuge while 'he was out on bail.
He feared then an extradition to the United States or Sweden where he was the subject of charges for rape since abandoned.