Europe 1 with AFP // Photo credits: RASID NECATI ASLIM / ANADOLU AGENCY / ANADOLU VIA AFP 2:46 p.m., March 26, 2024

Judges at the High Court in London have given a three-week deadline to the American authorities, who want to try Julian Assange for a massive leak of confidential documents. They want to ensure that in the United States, Julian Assange can benefit from the First Amendment to the American Constitution which protects freedom of expression.

British justice on Tuesday asked the United States for new guarantees regarding the treatment that would be reserved for Julian Assange, under penalty of granting the founder of Wikileaks a last appeal in the United Kingdom against his extradition. Judges at the High Court in London have given a three-week deadline to the American authorities, who want to try the 52-year-old Australian for a massive leak of confidential documents. They want to ensure that in the United States, Julian Assange can benefit from the First Amendment of the American Constitution which protects freedom of expression, and that he will not be sentenced to the death penalty, according to a summary of the judgment .

>> READ ALSO - 

Crucial day for Julian Assange on his potential extradition to the United States

“If these assurances are not provided” within this deadline, Julian Assange will be able to appeal the decision to extradite him, granted in June 2022 by the British government, judges Victoria Sharp and Jeremy Johnson decided. If they are, a new hearing will be held on May 20 before the judges decide whether these guarantees are satisfactory, to decide whether or not Julian Assange can benefit from a last resort in the United Kingdom, in a case which has become a symbol threats against press freedom.

Julian Assange's supporters had in any case warned that in the event of defeat he would take the matter to the European Court of Human Rights in the hope of having the extradition suspended. Julian Assange risks up to 175 years in prison for having published since 2010 more than 700,000 confidential documents on American military and diplomatic activities, particularly in Iraq and Afghanistan. Among them is a video showing civilians, including two Reuters journalists, killed by fire from an American combat helicopter in Iraq in July 2007.

>> ALSO READ - 

Julian Assange tries to obtain a last appeal against his extradition

“Final Hope”

His wife Stella Assange found Tuesday's decision "unbelievable", which she said amounted to requesting "political intervention from the United States". “A political prisoner”, the founder of Wikileaks is “persecuted because he revealed the true cost of war in terms of human lives”, she added before the High Court. Many voices have urged US President Joe Biden to drop the 18 charges against Julian Assange during Donald Trump's first term, under a 1917 espionage law.

Amnesty International, through its legal advisor Simon Crowther, considered that the guarantees requested are "flawed" and that those which have been provided so far are full of "loopholes". Rebecca Vincent, campaign director at Reporters Without Borders, saw Tuesday's decision as "a final hope" for justice in the United Kingdom.

In recent weeks, those close to Julian Assange, detained for five years in the high security Belmarsh prison in London, have warned of the deterioration of his state of health. His defense also highlights a risk of suicide in the event of extradition.

“Ordinary journalistic practices”

Suffering, he was absent from the two days of hearing in February, where Julian Assange's lawyers argued that extradition would put his health and even his life in danger and that these proceedings against him were "political", an argument dismissed by judges Tuesday. The Australian is being prosecuted for "ordinary journalistic practices" consisting of "obtaining and publishing information", argued his lawyer Edward Fitzgerald.

Lawyer Clair Dobbin, who represents the American government, argued that Julian Assange had “indiscriminately and knowingly published the names of individuals who served as sources of information for the United States” . In January 2021, British justice initially ruled in favor of the founder of WikiLeaks. Citing a risk of suicide, judge Vanessa Baraitser refused to give the green light to extradition. But this decision was later reversed.

In an attempt to reassure him about the treatment that would be inflicted on him, the United States has since affirmed that he would not be incarcerated at the very high security ADX prison in Florence (Colorado), nicknamed the "Alcatraz of the Rockies", and that he would receive the necessary clinical and psychological care. The Americans had also raised the possibility that he could ask to serve his sentence in Australia.