The United Kingdom’s High Court has granted the Biden administration the right to appeal a lower court’s ruling blocking the extradition of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to the United States. This comes as The Wall Street Journal reports U.S. officials have given assurances to the U.K. that Julian Assange wouldn’t be held in a “supermax” prison if extradited to the U.S. On Wednesday, Assange’s fiancée Stella Moris called on the Biden administration to end its pursuit of Assange.
Stella Moris: “The lawyers of Julian were spied on. Their offices were broken into. Even our 6-month-old baby was targeted while he was in the embassy. And now the High Court has limited the grounds on which they are allowed to appeal. So the case is falling apart. … If the Biden administration is serious about respecting the rule of law, the First Amendment and defending global press freedom, the only thing it can do is drop this case. This case is the most vicious attack on global press freedom in history.”
Assange faces up to 175 years in prison in the U.S. for violations of the Espionage Act related to the publication of classified documents exposing U.S. war crimes.