The High Court in London has put the extradition of Julian Assange on hold until the United States provides more assurances about how the WikiLeaks publisher will be treated in U.S. custody. The court asked the U.S. for assurances that Assange will be permitted to rely on the First Amendment, that he will not be discriminated against at trial because he is Australian, and that he will not face the death penalty. The court also ruled Assange may be able to file additional appeals to block the extradition, but that will depend on how the U.S. responds to the court’s request.

Assange has been held in London’s Belmarsh Prison for five years awaiting possible extradition to the United States, where he faces up to 175 years in prison for publishing classified documents exposing U.S. war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan. We’ll have more on this after headlines.