​In February, the High Court of Justice in London will consider a new appeal of the founder of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, regarding his extradition to the United States, where he is being prosecuted for the mass leak of “Wikileaks”, reported AFP and Reuters, citing Agerpres.

The hearing, scheduled for February 20 and 21, “may be Julian Assange’s last chance to prevent his extradition to the United States,” Assange’s supporters wrote in a statement. Two magistrates will review a High Court decision by a single judge on June 6 to refuse Julian Assange leave to appeal, they explained.

After the hearing in February, Julian Assange will either have “further opportunities to defend his case” before British justice, “or all appeals will be exhausted with no further appeal possible in the United Kingdom, and he will therefore be extradited.” process”.

A request to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) “remains possible”, his supporters also noted.

Assange, a 52-year-old Australian citizen, is facing an 18-count prosecution in the US after the release since 2010 of more than 700,000 classified documents about US military and diplomatic activities, including in Iraq and Afghanistan, which Washington says have killed lives. with risk

Thus, he faces a decade in prison.

Julian Assange between the hero of freedom of the press and the enemy of the American government

Arrested by British police in 2019 after spending seven years in the Ecuadorian embassy in London to avoid extradition to Sweden on sexual assault charges, he has been held in Belmarsh maximum security prison in east London for four years.

His supporters present him as a martyr of press freedom. The British government accepted his extradition in June 2022, but Julian Assange appealed.

WikiLeaks first gained notoriety in 2010 when it released hundreds of thousands of classified files and diplomatic cables, the largest security breach of its kind in the history of the US military, which US prosecutors say put the lives of agents named in the leak at risk. .

Assange’s supporters say he is an “anti-establishment” hero who was victimized for exposing US wrongdoing and that his prosecution is an attack on journalism and free speech. He spent seven years in the Ecuadorian embassy prison in London before being forcibly removed and jailed in 2019 for breaching his bail conditions.

Since then, he has been in prison while his extradition case is being decided. His lawyers also appealed to the European Court of Human Rights, which could have blocked the extradition.

“The last four and a half years have taken a toll on Julian and his family, including our two young sons,” said his wife Stella, whom he married in prison. “The persecution of this innocent journalist and editor must stop,” she added.