WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was handed a temporary reprieve Tuesday after British judges ruled that the U.S. must provide assurances about his treatment before he can be extradited on espionage charges, including that he will not face the death penalty. The U.K. High Court gave Washington until April 16 to give “satisfactory assurances” that Assange, an Australian citizen, would receive the same First Amendment freedom of speech protections as a U.S. citizen during his trial, and that he cannot be handed the death penalty if found guilty, Semafor reports. Assange may appeal his extradition if these assurances are not met. Assange, 52, is accused of violating the U.S. Espionage Act after releasing tens of thousands of classified documents in 2010 and 2011, including damning videos about U.S. military conduct in the Middle East.
Fearing extradition, in 2012 he sought refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy in London and stayed there until he was expelled in 2019. He has remained in a high-security prison in the U.K. ever since. Speaking outside the High Court in London, his wife Stella said he was a “political prisoner” and called on the U.S. to drop the case against him. “If you expose the interests that are driving war, they will come after you, they will put you in prison, and they will try to kill you,” she said. Assange still has several legal options that could delay his transfer to the U.S. further, including a plea bargain. “A plea bargain may begin to look like a reasonable outcome for everyone concerned” given that these legal proceedings would likely take months — if not years — to process, Holly Cullen, a University of Western Australia law professor, wrote for The Conversation. This is because even if the U.K’s Supreme Court upholds the extradition, meaning Assange has exhausted all his legal options in the country, he can still appeal to the European Court of Human Rights.
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