U.Okay. court hears Julian Assange extradition allure

Well a court hearing today could give WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange his final chance to avoid going on trial in the US Assange has been in a British prison since 2019 he's wanted by the US for leaking secret military files more than a decade ago our NPS Ty is following this for us from London NPS good morning Amry V good morning to you.

Well we were just outside that court and there is a huge crowd of Julian assange's supporters who were chanting uh and urging the world to free him saying that this was really a case of press freedom but Mr Assange himself did not attend because his lawyers said that he was simply too ill now Defenders of the Wikileaks Founders say he's.

Committed no crimes and should be protected by press freedoms but according to prosecutors in the US Assan seriously violated Espionage laws and must face Justice in an American Court Julian Assange forcibly dragged from the Ecuadorian Embassy in London by British police back in 2019 but his arrest would Mark the beginning of what has now.

Become a nearly 5-year legal battle as the 52-year-old Australian fights extradition to the US where he faces 17 charges of Espionage and one of misusing a computer for his alleged role in obtaining and disclosing classified material a judge in London initially blocked assange's transfer to the US on the grounds that he may kill himself if.

Held in what was described as harsh conditions in American prisons but a subsequent Court cleared the way for the move after us authorities provided assurances over his treatment leading to today's hearing for an appeal his wife Stella Sange says he should be freed Julian did the right thing he received information that was evidence of the of.

The United States and other countries committing torture and war crimes and uh he performed a public duty and now he's being punished for it Wikileaks became a household name in 2010 when the the website published hundreds of thousands of classified diplomatic cables and military files on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan they were obtained with the.

Help of Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning who hacked into a pentagon computer among the files published by Wikileaks was video of a 2007 Apache helicopter attack by American forces in Baghdad that killed 11 people including two journalists for the Reuters news agency now if the London High Court.

Rejects sanja's plea for a full appeal he could be extradited in a matter of weeks to the US where if convicted his lawyers say he could receive a prison turn of up to 175 years I'm Marie so Mt has of course the question is How likely is it that Assange will lose this battle to stay out of the.

US yeah guys look it's certainly not out of the realm of possibility and here's the reason why the extradition order for Julian Assange was initially denied dened by British judge back in 2021 but the reason the judge denied the extradition was because she expressed concern that Assan was at risk of suicide if he was sent to an American.

Prison because as we've been saying that there was concern that the conditions there would be too harsh but Britain's High Court later reversed that decision after assurances from American officials that ass Sange would be treated well so in 2022 prettyy Patel who was Britain's then Home Secretary approved the extradition request and that's when the.

Legal challenges of course continued with the San's legal team making an earlier request for an appeal to have Patel's order rejected by a single judge now here we are to today where two high court judges are hearing what is now his final bid for an appeal in a British court but I should point out the judge who initially blocked his extradition.

Did not indicate or rather did indicate that she thought he had committed crimes and if these two high court judges come to a similar conclusion that will very likely work against him Ms a curiosity you may not know the answer to this but I feel like the last time we were talking about Julian assage his health was kind of a big topic of conversation.

It seemed like not only a Poss his mental health was deteriorating but his physical health was deteriorating it's been several years now do we have any idea what the status of his health is it's not great um there's a reason he wasn't in court today because he has been unwell you heard in my reports uh that uh from his wife uh who has said.

Consistently that Julian Assange has not only deteriorated physically but mentally over the years we have to remember that this ordeal that he's been in has really been around 13 or 14 years uh in saying that you know the reality is is that the justice department does want to try Julian Assan they believe that he violated.

18 laws that's what he's been indicted on uh and you know again as we've been saying Court in London initially was concerned that he was a suicide risk if he would be sent to an American prison which sort of illustrates the kind of mental state that he's in but again we've the you the Justice uh Department who has lawyers here in the UK right now.

Who will be making submissions to this court are determined to have him extradited back to the US but again uh his supporters are saying that Julian Assange has not committed any crimes that he is a journalist and he is protected under the First Amendment and that he should be freed Amry all right MTS thank you.

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