Julian Assange Wins Right To Appeal Against US Extradition

 

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was on Monday given permission to appeal a decision to extradite him to the United States where he could face a lifetime in prison.

Washington wants to put the 50-year-old Australian on trial in connection with the publication of 500,000 secret military files relating to the US-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The High Court in London in December overturned a lower court's ruling not to send him to the United States on the grounds he would be a suicide risk.

But lawyers for Assange then challenged the decision, arguing that the country's highest court should rule on "points of law of general public importance".

"The respondent's application to certify a point of law is granted," said judges Ian Burnett and Timothy Holroyde in a written ruling.

The judges stated that they themselves were not granting him a right of appeal at the Supreme Court but Assange had the right to do so himself.

It is now for the Supreme Court to decide whether to take the case.

- France24.com