Julian Assange’s wife said, ahead of the final appeal of his extradition ruling to the United States, that the WikiLeaks founder would die if extradited to Washington. Stella Assange added in a press conference that her husband may be deported to the United States from Britain “within days” if he loses the appeal, which the Supreme Court is scheduled to hear tomorrow, Tuesday, February 20. She added that the situation is “extremely serious,” as his mental and physical health is “deteriorating.” “If he surrenders, he will die,” she said.
Julian Assange was born in 1971 in Townsville, Queensland, northern Australia, and spent his childhood traveling with his parents, who ran a traveling theatre. He had a child when he was 18, and was soon fighting court battles over custody of the child.
The development of the Internet provided him with an opportunity to use his excellence in mathematics, but it also caused difficulties for him. In 1995, he and a friend were accused of committing dozens of acts of electronic piracy. He was arrested, pleaded guilty, and Assange posted bail of several thousand Australian dollars to remain out of prison on the condition that he would not repeat his act.
The man then spent three years working with academic researcher “Soulette Dreyfus,” who was conducting research related to the destructive side emerging from the Internet, and with her he prepared the book “Underworld,” which became one of the best-selling computer-related books. Dreyfus described Assange as a “very skilled researcher” who had a “passion for the concept of ethics and concepts of justice, and what governments should do and not do.” He then enrolled in a mathematics and physics course at the University of Melbourne, after which he became a senior member of the mathematics department.
The US government is demanding that Assange, 52, be extradited on espionage charges in the United States, and he has been detained in Belmarsh high-security prison in southeast London since April 2019.
Julian Assange was arrested after spending seven years holed up in the Ecuadorian embassy in London to avoid extradition to Sweden, when he faced sexual assault charges that were eventually dropped. The American authorities want to prosecute the Australian publisher on charges of disclosing American military secrets regarding the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
If Assange is successful in his appeal, he will have opportunities to defend his case before the British domestic courts, with a date set for a full appeal hearing. If he loses, he will have exhausted all appeals in Britain and deportation procedures will begin, although his legal team said that he will appeal the ruling before European courts.
Britain is still part of the European Court of Human Rights, and the court has the power to order a halt to extradition. But this is only done in “exceptional circumstances.” This will also require the approval of the British government, which is uncertain given its ongoing dispute with the European Court after the court prevented the implementation of the government’s plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda.
It is not yet known whether the decision will be issued immediately after the hearing, or whether Assange will be allowed to attend in person. Who is Assange and what are the most important secrets revealed by his WikiLeaks website?
Why is Washington requesting his deportation?
In the eyes of his supporters, Julian Assange is a researcher who fights hard for the truth. But in the eyes of his critics, he is a person seeking fame and has endangered the lives of many by publishing a huge amount of sensitive information. Assange is described as a highly motivated and highly intelligent person, with an exceptional ability to decode computer programs.
In 2006, Assange founded the WikiLeaks website, which is concerned with publishing documents and photos, which made headlines around the world in April 2010 when it published footage showing American soldiers shooting dead 18 civilians from a helicopter in Iraq.
Then Britain arrested him later the same year after Sweden issued an international arrest warrant for him on charges of sexual assault. These charges were later dropped by the Swedish prosecution, in August 2015, after the period specified for investigation and indictment had expired.
But Assange is accused in the United States of publishing about 700,000 secret documents related to American military and diplomatic activities starting in 2010. The United States accuses him of conspiring with Chelsea Manning to access information in the computers of the US Department of Defense, and the United States is trying to convict him under the Espionage Act of 1917, which His supporters warn he could be sentenced to 175 years in prison.
The US Department of Justice had already charged him with 17 charges in May 2019 for violating the Espionage Act, and said that the materials obtained by WikiLeaks had endangered people’s lives. But Assange’s legal team says that secret documents published by WikiLeaks related to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan revealed American violations and serve the public interest.
On June 17, 2022, British Home Secretary Priti Patel agreed to extradite Assange to the United States of America. British courts approved his extradition request to the American authorities after the United States pledged not to imprison him in its most extreme prison, ADX Florence, and not to subject him to the harsh regime known as “Special Administrative Measures.”
