An audience in his absence.
According to Julian Assange's lawyer, the Wikileaks founder is not present in British justice this Tuesday because he is unwell.
The 52-year-old Australian begins a last appeal this Tuesday against his extradition to the United States, which wants to try him for a massive leak of documents.
“He is not feeling well today, he is not present,” his lawyer Edward Fitzgerald told the High Court in London.
As the hearing approaches, his supporters warned of the risks weighing on the man who has been detained for almost five years in the United Kingdom, in a case made into a symbol of the threats weighing on press freedom.
“We don’t know what to expect, but you are here because the world is watching,” said Stella Assange, wife of the Wikileaks founder, calling for continued protests “until Julian is free.”
“Julian needs his freedom and we all need freedom,” she said.
“If he’s extradited to the US, he won’t survive it.”
Stella Assange, wife of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, speaks to @MishalHusain ahead of his final appeal in a UK court tomorrow.#R4Today
— BBC Radio 4 Today (@BBCr4today) February 19, 2024
She told the BBC on Monday that she feared a rapid extradition if Julian Assange did not obtain a last resort but hoped that the European Court of Human Rights could be seized in time to intervene.
In January 2021, British justice initially ruled in favor of the founder of Wikileaks.
Citing a risk of suicide, judge Vanessa Baraitser refused to give the green light to extradition.
But this decision was later reversed.
“Alcatraz of the Rockies”
In an attempt to reassure him about the treatment that would be inflicted on him, the United States affirmed that he would not be incarcerated at the very high security ADX prison in Florence (Colorado), nicknamed the "Alcatraz of the Rockies" and that he would receive the necessary clinical and psychological care.
The Americans had also raised the possibility that he could ask to serve his sentence in Australia.
These guarantees convinced the British justice system, but not the supporters of Julian Assange, who denounce political prosecutions.
Julian Assange faces up to 175 years in prison.
He is being prosecuted for having published since 2010 more than 700,000 confidential documents on American military and diplomatic activities, particularly in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Among them was a video showing civilians, including two Reuters journalists, killed by fire from a US helicopter gunship in Iraq in July 2007.
These documents were obtained thanks to American soldier Chelsea Manning.
Sentenced in August 2013 to 35 years in prison by a court martial, she was released after seven years following a sentence commuted by Barack Obama.