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U.K. Home Secretary Approves Extradition of Julian Assange to U.S.

HeadlineJun 17, 2022

U.K. Home Secretary Priti Patel has approved the extradition of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to the United States. Assange faces up to 175 years in prison in the United States if convicted of violating the Espionage Act for publishing classified documents exposing U.S. war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan. WikiLeaks said today that Assange would appeal today’s ruling. His attorney Jen Robinson condemned the U.K. for extraditing Assange to a country which once considered assassinating him. In a statement, WikiLeaks said, “It was in Priti Patel’s power to do the right thing. Instead she will forever be remembered as an accomplice of the United States in its agenda to turn investigative journalism into a criminal enterprise.” Jameel Jaffer of the Knight First Amendment Institute tweeted, “The Assange indictment is a dagger at the throat of press freedom. The Biden admin should drop the prosecution, as press freedom groups have repeatedly asked it to do.” We will speak to Julian Assange’s brother after headlines.

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