Why Julian Assange’s extradition case is taking so long

ON MAY 20TH the High Court in London ruled that Julian Assange should be granted a hearing on a new appeal against his extradition to America. Mr Assange, the co-founder of WikiLeaks and an Australian national, has been fighting for more than 13 years to remain in Britain. This latest appeal, in which he will argue that America has not done enough to guarantee his rights as a defendant, is one of the few legal avenues he has left. If extradited, he will face 18 charges of espionage and computer hacking: together they carry a maximum sentence of 175 years in prison, though America has said he is likely to serve just four to six. Mr Assange’s supporters call him a “political prisoner” and say (without evidence) that the case against him is “rigged”. What is he alleged to have done?

Through WikiLeaks, a whistleblowing site, Mr Assange released huge tranches of secret documents. In 2010 the site published footage of an American helicopter crew firing at civilians in Iraq, along with records suggesting that civilian casualties in Afghanistan were higher than previously reported. Rather than releasing information selectively Mr Assange published reams of classified documents with scant regard for their contents. Later in 2010 he released hundreds of thousands of military and diplomatic papers. Few revealed any wrongdoing—but many contained sensitive information. America’s State Department accused WikiLeaks of endangering “countless innocent individuals”. Amnesty International, a human-rights group, warned that documents concerning Afghanistan could be used to identify Afghans who had supported America.

Around the same time, Mr Assange—who was then in London—was accused of several sexual offences, including rape, against two women in Sweden. Mr Assange, who denied the allegations, was arrested and granted bail. In 2012, after his final attempt to avoid extradition to Sweden failed, he sought refuge in the Ecuadorean embassy in London. Dismissing the allegations as a plot to secure his subsequent extradition from Sweden to America (which had not yet been requested) he remained in the embassy for years. He continued to release classified documents and colluded with hackers to spread conspiracy theories about Hillary Clinton, the Democratic candidate in America’s presidential election in 2016.

Eventually, in 2019, Mr Assange fell out with his Ecuadorean hosts. He was dragged from the embassy by British police and imprisoned for breaching his bail conditions. Swedish prosecutors dropped the charges against him, saying that too much time had passed since the allegations were made. But that same year America brought charges relating to the documents Mr Assange published in 2010. Mr Assange was indicted for helping Chelsea Manning, a former intelligence analyst, to hack government computers. Further charges, including conspiring to obtain secret documents, were added soon after.

Mr Assange has made a number of unsuccessful appeals to avoid extradition. In 2021 a judge ruled against his extradition on the grounds that Mr Assange’s poor mental health made it likely that he would commit suicide if held in harsh prison conditions. But the High Court overturned that decision when it received assurances from America that Mr Assange would be treated humanely.

The hearing on May 20th examined another set of American assurances, in response to Mr Assange’s final bid to avoid extradition. These were intended to allay concerns that he would not be able to rely on the First Amendment to the American constitution, which protects free speech; the Americans said that Mr Assange would be able to use it as a defence, but that it will be up to the courts to decide whether to accept it. America also said that the death penalty will not be imposed. In the end, these assurances did not convince the court that they should deny Mr Assange another attempt to appeal. Another stage in the long battle over his extradition beckons. ■