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Pro-Assange demonstration in London
PHOTO: JOHN SIBLEY / REUTERS
The imprisoned Wikileaks founder Julian Assange continues to pursue legal action against his extradition to the US and has filed an appeal.
The High Court in London confirmed receipt of such an application to the BBC, as the broadcaster reports.
Two weeks ago, after years of legal wrangling, the British government approved the extradition of the Wikileaks founder to the United States.
The 50-year-old has been in prison in London since 2019.
The US judiciary wants to put Assange on trial for allegations of espionage.
The Australian 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 lawyers argue that no one was harmed.
Supporters see Assange as a courageous journalist who brought war crimes to light and who should now be made an example of.
more on the subject
USA vs. Assange: »It is cheaper to commit crimes against humanity than to expose them«By Michael Sontheimer
Reports confirmed war crimes
In 2010, WikiLeaks, together with the New York Times, the Guardian and DER SPIEGEL, published reports based on hundreds of thousands of leaked military logs which, among other things, proved war crimes committed by the USA during the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
The files documented how torture and executions became common practice there and how it affected even US soldiers.
In June 2012, to avoid being arrested in the UK and extradited to Sweden and from there to the US, Assange asked for asylum at the Ecuadorian embassy in London.
The Ecuadorian government initially granted him this, but withdrew it in April 2019 after massive pressure from the US government.
Since then he has been sitting behind frosted glass panes in London's maximum security prison Belmarsh.
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