This content was published on April 21, 2022 – 04:20
Sydney (Australia), Apr 21 (EFE).- Australia will not challenge the decision of the United Kingdom Justice on the extradition to the United States of the founder of WikiLeaks, the Australian Julian Assange, to be tried for alleged espionage and computer intrusion, said this Thursday the finance minister of the oceanic country, Simon Birmingham.
“We trust the independence and integrity of the British judicial system. Our expectation is that, as always, it operates correctly, transparently and independently,” the Australian minister told ABC public broadcaster.
His remarks come after the chief judge of the Westminster Magistrates Court, Paul Golspring, issued on Wednesday the order for Assange’s surrender to the United States, which must be considered by the British Home Secretary, Priti Patel, in a period of two months, which can be extended.
Patel’s eventual decision may be appealed by the parties but only if the Superior Court authorizes it, although the defense also believes that it has the option of appealing to the European Court of Human Rights as a last resort.
Washington calls on Assange to prosecute him for 18 crimes of espionage and computer intrusion for the revelations on his website about US abuses in his detention center in Guantanamo (Cuba) as well as alleged war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The 50-year-old former hacker, whose website also revealed hundreds of thousands of confidential diplomatic cables that embarrassed governments around the world, faces a 175-year prison sentence in the United States.
Assange’s legal battle began more than ten years ago when he was accused of alleged sexual crimes, which have been filed, and which led to house arrest and his asylum in the Ecuadorian embassy in London between 2012 and 2019, to later go to Belmarsh prison after being re-arrested at the request of the United States. EFE
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