London: Assange extradition order issued

Created: 04/20/2022Updated: 04/20/2022 12:59 p.m

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange faces extradition to the United States (archive image).

© Dominic Lipinski/PA Wire/dpa

Julian Assange's extradition to the United States is near.

The court order now goes to the British Home Office.

However, no final decision has been made yet.

LONDON - In the legal tug of war over the extradition of Julian Assange to the United States, the transfer of the Wikileaks founder to the United States has come a step closer.

The Westminster Magistrates Court issued the formal extradition order in London.

This will now go to British Home Secretary Priti Patel for a final decision.

However, Assange's lawyers have four weeks to present further grounds for objection.

A further course in court is not excluded.

The US judiciary wants to put the 50-year-old on trial for allegations of espionage.

He faces up to 175 years in prison if convicted.

He is accused of having stolen and published secret material from US military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan together with whistleblower Chelsea Manning, thereby endangering the lives of US informants.

His supporters, on the other hand, see him as an investigative journalist who has brought war crimes to light and who is now to be made an example of.

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The legal dispute over a possible extradition to the USA has been going on for around two years.

The High Court gave the go-ahead.

An appeal against this was dismissed by the highest British court, the Supreme Court, as inadmissible.

The organization Reporters Without Borders called for the release of the Wikileaks founder.

"We are calling on the Home Secretary to act in accordance with Britain's commitment to defending press freedom and to refuse extradition," the organization's London representative, Rebecca Vincent, told the German Press Agency.

Assange, who has been imprisoned for more than three years, must be released from prison immediately.

The case of the 50-year-old had once again become a political decision.

dpa