High Court rules Julian Assange can be extradited to US

Julian Assange is one stop closer to being extradited to the US.

Washington won the latest stage of its legal bid in the High Court to have the WikiLeaks founder extradited to face charges.

“The court allows the appeal,” Judge Timothy Holroyde said.

The verdict supersedes a London district court ruling in January that the Wikileaks founder could not be sent to the US on mental health grounds.

Holroyde said the US has since given a package of assurances to Britain about the conditions of Assange’s detention.

WikiLeaks published of thousands of classified documents in 2010 and 2011, supplied by US Army Intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning.

This included confidential military records and diplomatic cables.

The Department of Justice indicted the Australian-born Assange on 18 counts, including breaking spying laws and conspiring to hack government computers.

Commenting on the upcoming process following the verdict, Thomas Garner, extradition partner at law firm Fladgate told City A.M. the decision “demonstrates the extreme difficulty that individuals face in resisting extradition where a requesting state is prepared to go to such extraordinary lengths to secure their surrender.”

Garner also suggested Assange could take this matter to the Supreme Court.

He said: ““Assange’s team will likely petition the Supreme Court in a last attempt to challenge this decision as they did in 2012 in relation to the European Arrest Warrant he faced from Sweden. After he lost that ruling, he famously fled into the Ecuadorian embassy. No such option exists this time as he remains in custody.”