NEW YORK: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange met with partial success as a High Court in the United Kingdom allowed him to appeal his extradition decision which was signed in 2022 by the then-home secretary Priti Patel.
According to the prosecutors, the confidential information and war crimes unearthed by WikiLeaks endangered the lives of those people whose names were not redacted and that should be trialled before the US courts, reported BBC.
WikiLeaks founder filed the appeal against the extradition in February 2024.
The decision was issued by two senior judges allowing Assange to challenge the assurances by Washington about his future trial in the US, keeping in view his right to free speech.
Attorneys of the 52-year-old Assange hugged each other and maintained that the case was politically motivated.
The resistance to his extradition came over a decade after his website released confidential military secrets revealing the US war crimes in 2010 and 2011.
Now Assange — who is in Belmarsh Prison — has several months to prepare a full appeal in the UK. The Australian national Assange maintained that his revealing in 2010 made public the war crimes being committed by the US.
The news in favour of the journalist was cheered among his supporters.
His wife Stella Assange told the news outlet that it would be a “decisive” day in the protracted legal battle.
His wife further added that she would “fight on until Julian is free”, whatever the judges ruled.
The US has been attempting to extradite Assange for committing “one of the largest compromises of classified information in the history of the United States”, as per Department of Justice.
According to the information the US military had killed civilians in unreported incidents during the war in Afghanistan. Assange’s wife stated: “This case is the revenge of that country against openness and accountability.” –Agencies
