A “no” would bring it a little closer to American prisons.
British justice will announce on Tuesday whether it will grant WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange a last appeal against his extradition to the United States, where he risks up to 175 years in prison.
American justice is pursuing the whistleblower for having published since 2010 more than 700,000 confidential documents on American military and diplomatic activities, particularly in Iraq and Afghanistan.
A refugee in the United Kingdom, Julian Assange was arrested by the British police in 2019 after seven years spent in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, in order to avoid extradition.
He has since been detained in the high security Belmarsh prison in London.
The British government agreed in 2022 to extradite him to the United States, but Assange appealed.
Also read Wikileaks: Julian Assange “will die” if he is extradited, warns his wife
After two days of hearings in February, two judges of the High Court of London, Victoria Sharp and Jeremy Johnson, must deliver their decision from 10:30 a.m. in London (11:30 a.m. in France), according to the court agenda published this Monday.
They must decide whether or not to grant the 52-year-old Australian the right to appeal his extradition to the United States.
His state of health is deteriorating
In the event of defeat, the game would not be over since Julian Assange would go to the European Court of Human Rights in the hope of having the extradition suspended, according to his wife Stella Assange.
In recent weeks, those close to the whistleblower, who has become the symbol of the threats weighing on press freedom, have warned of the deterioration of his state of health.
His defense also highlights a risk of suicide in the event of extradition.
He was also absent from the February hearings because he was unwell.
In 2019, a rape investigation opened in Sweden targeting Julian Assange was dismissed.