Europe 1 with AFP 2:48 p.m., April 20, 2022
Westminster Magistrates Court in London has officially issued an extradition order to the United States for Julian Assange.
Unless there is an appeal from his lawyers, the WikiLeaks founder will be extradited within 28 days of the Minister's decision to order the extradition.
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is one step closer to extradition to the United States who want to try him for espionage, after a formal decision by British justice on Wednesday.
Westminster Magistrates Court in London has formally issued an extradition order and it is now up to UK Home Secretary Priti Patel to approve it.
A possible appeal by Assange's lawyers
'Put simply, I am required to send your case to the Minister of State for decision,' Magistrate Paul Goldspring told a short seven-minute hearing.
The 50-year-old WikiLeaks founder was not physically present in court but followed the administrative proceedings via video link.
His lawyers can still appeal to the High Court.
Unless there is an appeal, Julian Assange will be extradited within 28 days of the Minister's decision to order the extradition.
Outside the court, a few dozen supporters of Julian Assange had gathered on Wednesday with placards proclaiming "Do not extradite Assange. Journalism is not a crime" or "Let freedom of the press rest in peace".
Former Labor Party leader Jeremy Corbyn was also on hand to defend the Australian.
“He did absolutely nothing more than tell the truth to the world,” Jeremy Corbyn told protesters.
An attack on freedom of the press
"If #JulianAssange is extradited to the United States, journalists around the world will have to look over their shoulders if they publish information harmful to American interests" also reacted on Twitter the human rights organization Amnesty International. .
Julian Assange has been detained for three years in the maximum security prison of Belmarsh, near London where he married his fiancée Stella Moris last month.
She had two children with Julian Assange, two little boys conceived when he was living at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London.
The founder of WikiLeaks spent seven years in this embassy where he took refuge in 2012 while he was on bail.
He then feared extradition to the United States, or Sweden where he was the subject of rape proceedings since abandoned.
He was finally arrested by British police in April 2019 and imprisoned.
His wife, a South African lawyer in her thirties, last month begged Priti Patel to prevent his extradition, asking her to put an end to this "political affair".
She attended the court hearing on Wednesday.
Caught up in a long legal saga, the Australian is wanted by American justice who wants to try him for the dissemination, from 2010, of more than 700,000 classified documents on American military and diplomatic activities, in particular in Iraq and Afghanistan. .
Prosecuted in particular under legislation against espionage, Julian Assange faces 175 years in prison, in a case denounced by human rights organizations as a serious attack on the freedom of the press.
On March 14, he had seen one of his last hopes of avoiding his extradition disappear, with the refusal of the British Supreme Court to examine his appeal.