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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link="#0563C1" vlink="#954F72"><div class=WordSection1><h1 style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;vertical-align:baseline'><span style='font-family:"GH Guardian Headline";color:#121212;font-weight:normal'>Julian Assange can be extradited to US to face espionage charges, court rules<o:p></o:p></span></h1><p style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:6.0pt;margin-left:0in;line-height:15.0pt;vertical-align:baseline;box-sizing: border-box'><b><span style='font-family:"GH Guardian Headline";color:#121212'>WikiLeaks co-founder’s fiancee says appeal will be launched, as Amnesty International says decision is a ‘travesty of justice’<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal style='vertical-align:baseline'><span style='font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2021/dec/10/julian-assange-can-be-extradited-to-us-to-face-espionage-charges-court-rules?utm_term=61b3565d0ba8f58286629d3af5c0bfbb&utm_campaign=GuardianTodayUS&utm_source=esp&utm_medium=Email&CMP=GTUS_email">https://www.theguardian.com/media/2021/dec/10/julian-assange-can-be-extradited-to-us-to-face-espionage-charges-court-rules?utm_term=61b3565d0ba8f58286629d3af5c0bfbb&utm_campaign=GuardianTodayUS&utm_source=esp&utm_medium=Email&CMP=GTUS_email</a><o:p></o:p></span></p><address style='vertical-align:baseline'><span style='font-family:"GH Guardian Headline";color:#C70000'><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/profile/benquinn"><b><span style='font-family:"inherit",serif;color:#C70000;border:none windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0in;font-style:normal'>Ben Quinn</span></b></a><o:p></o:p></span></address><address style='vertical-align:baseline'><b><span style='font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#707070'><a href="https://www.twitter.com/BenQuinn75"><span style='color:#707070;border:none windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0in'>@BenQuinn75</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></b></address><p class=MsoNormal style='vertical-align:baseline'><span style='font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#707070'>Fri 10 Dec 2021 06.55 EST<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:0in;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l1 level1 lfo1;vertical-align:baseline'><![if !supportLists]><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Symbol'><span style='mso-list:Ignore'>·<span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'> </span></span></span><![endif]><span style='font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:0in;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l1 level1 lfo1;vertical-align:baseline'><![if !supportLists]><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Symbol'><span style='mso-list:Ignore'>·<span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'> </span></span></span><![endif]><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:0in;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l1 level1 lfo1;vertical-align:baseline'><![if !supportLists]><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Symbol'><span style='mso-list:Ignore'>·<span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'> </span></span></span><![endif]><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=dcr-o5gy41 style='vertical-align:baseline;box-sizing: border-box;margin:1rem;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-stretch: inherit;font-size:1.0625rem;word-break:break-word'><b><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif'>Julian Assange can be extradited to the US, the high court has ruled as it overturned a judgment earlier this year.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class=dcr-o5gy41 style='vertical-align:baseline;box-sizing: border-box;margin:1rem;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-stretch: inherit;font-size:1.0625rem;word-break:break-word'><span style='font-family:"Georgia",serif'>The decision deals a major blow to the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/wikileaks"><span style='color:#C70000;border:none windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0in'>WikiLeaks</span></a> co-founder’s efforts to prevent his extradition to the US to face espionage charges, although his fiancee immediately indicated that an appeal would be launched.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=dcr-o5gy41 style='vertical-align:baseline;box-sizing: border-box' id=sign-in-gate><span style='font-family:"Georgia",serif'>The senior judges found that a then-district judge had based her decision earlier this year on the risk of Assange being held in highly restrictive prison conditions if extradited.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=dcr-o5gy41 style='vertical-align:baseline;box-sizing: border-box;margin:1rem;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-stretch: inherit;font-size:1.0625rem;word-break:break-word'><span style='font-family:"Georgia",serif'>But in their ruling on Friday, they sided with the US authorities after a near-unprecedented package of assurances were put forward that Assange would not face those strictest measures either pre-trial or post-conviction unless he committed an act in the future that required them.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=dcr-o5gy41 style='vertical-align:baseline;box-sizing: border-box;margin:1rem;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-stretch: inherit;font-size:1.0625rem;word-break:break-word'><span style='font-family:"Georgia",serif'>Lord Burnett said: “That risk is in our judgment excluded by the assurances which are offered. It follows that we are satisfied that, if the assurances had been before the judge, she would have answered the relevant question differently.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=dcr-o5gy41 style='vertical-align:baseline;box-sizing: border-box;margin:1rem;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-stretch: inherit;font-size:1.0625rem;word-break:break-word'><span style='font-family:"Georgia",serif'>He added: “That conclusion is sufficient to determine this appeal in the USA’s favour.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=dcr-o5gy41 style='vertical-align:baseline;box-sizing: border-box;margin:1rem;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-stretch: inherit;font-size:1.0625rem;word-break:break-word'><span style='font-family:"Georgia",serif'>Allowing the appeal, the judges ordered that the case be remitted to Westminster magistrates court with a direction that a district justice send the case to the secretary of state, who will decide whether Assange should be extradited to the US.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center;vertical-align:baseline'><span style='font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=dcr-o5gy41 style='vertical-align:baseline;box-sizing: border-box;margin:1rem;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-stretch: inherit;font-size:1.0625rem;word-break:break-word'><span style='font-family:"Georgia",serif'>Responding to the decision, Stella Moris, Julian Assange’s fiancee, said: <b>“We will appeal this decision at the earliest possible moment.”<o:p></o:p></b></span></p><p class=dcr-o5gy41 style='vertical-align:baseline;box-sizing: border-box;margin:1rem;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-stretch: inherit;font-size:1.0625rem;word-break:break-word'><span style='font-family:"Georgia",serif'>She described the high court’s ruling as “dangerous and misguided” and a “grave miscarriage of justice.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=dcr-o5gy41 style='vertical-align:baseline;box-sizing: border-box;margin:1rem;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-stretch: inherit;font-size:1.0625rem;word-break:break-word'><span style='font-family:"Georgia",serif'>“How can it be fair, how can it be right, how can it be possible, to extradite Julian to the very country which plotted to kill him?” she said.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=dcr-o5gy41 style='vertical-align:baseline;box-sizing: border-box;margin:1rem;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-stretch: inherit;font-size:1.0625rem;word-break:break-word'><span style='font-family:"Georgia",serif'>The case against the 49-year-old relates to WikiLeaks’s publication of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/nov/28/us-embassy-cable-leak-diplomacy-crisis"><span style='color:#C70000;border:none windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0in'>hundreds of thousands of leaked documents</span></a> about the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, as well as diplomatic cables, in 2010 and 2011.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=dcr-o5gy41 style='vertical-align:baseline;box-sizing: border-box;margin:1rem;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-stretch: inherit;font-size:1.0625rem;word-break:break-word'><span style='font-family:"Georgia",serif'>Alarm at the high court ruling was expressed by advocates of press freedom, with Amnesty International describing the ruling as a “travesty of justice”.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=dcr-o5gy41 style='vertical-align:baseline;box-sizing: border-box;margin:1rem;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-stretch: inherit;font-size:1.0625rem;word-break:break-word'><span style='font-family:"Georgia",serif'>Nils Mui¾nieks, Amnesty International’s Europe director, said: “By allowing this appeal, the high court has chosen to accept the deeply flawed <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2021/07/the-us-diplomatic-assurances-are-inherently-unreliable-julian-assange-must-be-released/"><span style='color:#C70000;border:none windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0in'>diplomatic assurances</span></a> given by the US that Assange would not be held in solitary confinement in a maximum security prison.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=dcr-o5gy41 style='vertical-align:baseline;box-sizing: border-box;margin:1rem;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-stretch: inherit;font-size:1.0625rem;word-break:break-word'><b><span style='font-family:"Georgia",serif'>“If extradited to the US, Julian Assange could not only face trial on charges under the Espionage Act but also a real risk of serious human rights violations due to detention conditions that could <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/eur45/4450/2021/en/"><span style='color:#C70000;border:none windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0in'>amount to torture</span></a> or other ill-treatment. The US government’s indictment poses a grave threat to press freedom both in the United States and abroad.”<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class=dcr-o5gy41 style='vertical-align:baseline;box-sizing: border-box;margin:1rem;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-stretch: inherit;font-size:1.0625rem;word-break:break-word'><span style='font-family:"Georgia",serif'>Rebecca Vincent, director of international campaigns at Reporters Without Borders and the organisation’s UK bureau director, tweeted: “This is an utterly shameful development that has alarming implications not only for Assange’s mental health, but also for journalism and press freedom around the world.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=dcr-o5gy41 style='vertical-align:baseline;box-sizing: border-box;margin:1rem;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-stretch: inherit;font-size:1.0625rem;word-break:break-word'><span style='font-family:"Georgia",serif'>The high court was told earlier this year that blocking Assange‘s removal from the UK due to his mental health risked “rewarding fugitives for their flight”.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=dcr-o5gy41 style='vertical-align:baseline;box-sizing: border-box;margin:1rem;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-stretch: inherit;font-size:1.0625rem;word-break:break-word'><span style='font-family:"Georgia",serif'>James Lewis QC, for the US, said the district judge based her decision on Assange‘s “intellectual ability to circumvent suicide preventive measures”, which risked becoming a “trump card” for anyone who wanted to oppose their extradition regardless of any resources the other state might have.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=dcr-o5gy41 style='vertical-align:baseline;box-sizing: border-box;margin:1rem;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-stretch: inherit;font-size:1.0625rem;word-break:break-word'><span style='font-family:"Georgia",serif'>The assurances offered by the US in a diplomatic note in February included one that Assange would not be subject to “special administrative measures” or held at a maximum security “ADX” facility, such as one in Florence, Colorado, either during a pretrial period or after any conviction.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=dcr-o5gy41 style='vertical-align:baseline;box-sizing: border-box;margin:1rem;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-stretch: inherit;font-size:1.0625rem;word-break:break-word'><span style='font-family:"Georgia",serif'>The US also said it will consent to an application by Assange, if he is convicted, to be transferred to his native Australia to serve any sentence and that he would receive appropriate clinical and psychological treatment while in US custody.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=dcr-o5gy41 style='vertical-align:baseline;box-sizing: border-box;margin:1rem;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-stretch: inherit;font-size:1.0625rem;word-break:break-word'><span style='font-family:"Georgia",serif'>The US assurances were described in the ruling by the high court judges on Friday as “solemn undertakings offered by one government to another.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=dcr-o5gy41 style='vertical-align:baseline;box-sizing: border-box;margin:1rem;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-stretch: inherit;font-size:1.0625rem;word-break:break-word'><span style='font-family:"Georgia",serif'>Lord Burnett of Maldon, lord chief justice, and Lord Justice Holroyde added in their ruling: “There is no reason why this court should not accept the assurances as meaning what they say. There is no basis for assuming that the USA has not given the assurances in good faith.”<o:p></o:p></span></p></div></body></html>