The British Justice demands new guarantees from the US regarding Assange to decide on his extradition

MADRID, 26 Mar. (EUROPA PRESS) –

The High Court of London has opened this Tuesday a new avenue so that the founder of Wikileaks, Julian Assange, can have a new complete review of his potential extradition to the United States, pending however a series of guarantees required from the authorities. Americans.

The two judges have understood that the arguments presented by Assange’s lawyers were founded, which is why they have announced a future hearing in May if the United States cannot first prove a series of requirements, such as that the accused will not be sentenced to the sentence of death or that the First Amendment of the North American Constitution, which enshrines freedom of the press, will be respected, the BBC reports.

Assange receives a partial oxygen tank, to the extent that a frontal rejection of his arguments after the February hearings in the High Court would have already implied accepting the political endorsement of the extradition. In this case, the founder of Wikileaks would only have to go to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).

The United Kingdom Government gave the green light to the transfer in June 2022, but Assange, who spent nearly seven years taking refuge in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, has tried to block it in every possible way. He is facing charges for violating the US Espionage Act and risks a sentence of up to 175 years in prison for leaking thousands of secret documents.

HE IS NOT A POLITICAL PERSECUTED

At the hearings, the lawyers of the founder of Wikileaks questioned whether he could receive a fair trial in the United States and claimed that fundamental freedoms are at stake in this process, since Assange’s actions would fall within the scope of journalism and would deserve special protection. .

Likewise, they alleged that their client was accused of “political crimes” and that, therefore, the extradition treaty between the United States and the United Kingdom was not applicable in his case. The judges, however, have rejected in their ruling this Tuesday that the prosecution derives from the expression of political opinions.

For the US side, these are especially serious events and during the hearings they emphasized the “profound consequences” of the leaks, especially for the sources that were identified in the documents published by Wikileaks and related to conflict situations.