The London High Court partially upheld the appeal of Australian internet user and publicist Julian Assange on Monday. This averted an immediate transfer of the 52-year-old to the United States for the time being.
The United States has requested his extradition as part of a civil complaint by a former employee about sexual assault. But Assange fears that the US wants to prosecute him because he has made public American state secrets via Wikileaks, including all diplomatic cables from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Assange's lawyers had previously convinced the judges in London in a hearing to allow the Australian to put forward his arguments in a full appeal procedure. The main question was whether Assange, as a foreign citizen, could invoke the right to freedom of expression in the US. The British judges initially postponed the decision at the end of March and demanded guarantees from the US. However, these did not initially convince the court.
The High Court in London has now decided that Julian Assange can appeal against his extradition to the US. The founder of Wikileaks risks a long prison sentence there.
The US government wants to try the Australian on espionage charges. He faces a prison sentence of up to 175 years. The US government accuses him of stealing and publishing classified material about military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, endangering the lives of American informants.
However, Assange's supporters see him as a target of the Washington judiciary because of his exposure of American war crimes.
In addition to the appeal procedure that is now underway, Assange's supporters will probably pin their hopes mainly on a political solution. The Australian government is now campaigning for the release of its citizen. The Australian parliament recently passed a resolution calling on the US and Britain to stop prosecuting Assange.