Stella Assange Relects On ‘Milestone’ High Court Win For Wikileaks Founder Husband
Stella Assange described Monday’s High Court ruling allowing her husband, Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, the right to appeal his extradition to the US as a “temporary reprieve” but stressed the outcome provided “no consolation.”
High Court judges granted the appeal after the US prosecutors were unable to meet certain assurances. Judges told the US team that extradition would be unlawful without assurance that, if extradited and tried in the States, Assange would not face the death penalty and can rely on First Amendment protections.
Explaining the outcome in Monday’s ruling on LBC’s Tonight with Andrew Marr, Stella Assange told the host: “On the death penalty, the judge agreed, and the defence didn’t challenge that the United States had issued an undertaking that they would not pursue the death penalty.”
She continued: “What the decision today turned on was the fact that the United States did not give satisfactory assurance in relation to Julian being able to rely on constitutional protections for freedom of speech… The United States said, ‘Well, we can’t really issue an assurance on this, because it will be up to the judge.’ But also, what they didn’t do was say, ‘Well, we’re not going to argue that.’ So, all they did was say, ‘You’re welcome to make the argument in court and we’ll see what happens and of course.’ The [High Court] judges didn’t like this line of reasoning, and so they sided with Julian in this case.”
Stella Assange shared that her husband was “extremely relieved” at the decision.
Detailing the moment her husband discovered the ruling, Stella Assange said: “He called me and we were speaking, and a guard opened the door to his cell and told him that it was time to go to the yard for exercise. I heard the guard saying congratulations for today. So obviously people in the prison also hear the news and they tell him congratulations. But up until this point, he had had a very stressful few days. He hadn’t slept at all last night when I spoke to him before the hearing. He was very stressed. Obviously, he’s under a lot of pressure.”
She added: “It’s a big day, and I think it marks a milestone, a change of course hopefully, in which the United States will look at this case and realise that it should drop it.”
The Wikileaks founder has been in Belmarsh High Security Prison for over five years without a conviction, which his wife criticised as “punishment through process.”
Assange faces severe charges under US law, including 17 counts of espionage, related to the publication of classified materials leaked by whistleblower Chelsea Manning that exposed US military actions in Iraq and Afghanistan. The US claims that the Wikileaks founder encouraged and helped Manning obtain illegal materials, in part by offering to help her guess a password. Manning’s sentence was commuted by former President Barack Obama at the end of his term in office.
A hearing will be scheduled in the coming months for Assange’s hard won appeal opportunity.
