London (AFP)

Julian Assange's companion, Stella Moris, has again called on the administration of US President Joe Biden to drop the charges against the founder of WikiLeaks, after British justice on Wednesday allowed Washington to appeal against the refusal to extradite him .

"If the Biden administration is serious about respecting the rule of law" and "freedom of the press in the world", "the only thing it can do is drop this case," said Stella Moris at the press outside the High Court buildings in London.

In his eyes, this procedure represents "the most vicious attack on press freedom in the world in all history", denouncing a procedure based on "lies".

According to Julian Assange's backers, British justice has accepted Washington's appeal against refusal to extradite the 50-year-old Australian, sued for the dissemination of hundreds of thousands of confidential documents, but limited it to questions "techniques".

The date of the hearing is not yet known.

In the meantime, the founder of WikiLeaks remains in detention at Belmarsh high security prison (south-east London).

Julian Assange was arrested by British police in April 2019 after spending seven years in seclusion at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, where he had taken refuge while on bail.

He feared extradition to the United States or Sweden, where he was the subject of rape charges that have since been dropped.

The Australian, supported by a number of press freedom organizations, faces 175 years in prison in the United States for having disseminated, from 2010, more than 700,000 classified documents on American military and diplomatic activities, especially in Iraq and Afghanistan.

© 2021 AFP