UK Court Denies Assange’s Extradition Appeal


Julian Assange's petition to appeal was denied by the UK Supreme Court. Mar. 14, 2022. | Photo: Twitter/@WeForNew

Published 14 March 2022

On Monday, the United Kingdom Supreme Court dropped Julian Assange's appeal in light of the extradition process against him.

WikiLeaks co-founder, Julian Assange's legal defense filed a petition to appeal on January 24, in light of a potential extradition process to the U.S., where he faces espionage charges and could be sentenced to a 175-year condemnation in a high-security “supermax” prison. On Monday the UK Supreme Court denied Assange permission to appeal in the case.

Home Secretary Priti Patel is in charge of authorizing whether Assange will be extradited. The reason behind the Supreme Court's refusal of the appeal petition has not yet been released. The announcement of the denied petition was made public by WikiLeaks and Assange's fiancé, Stella Morris, on social networks.

Last December, Assange's legal defense presented a petition to appeal, stating that the U.S. guarantees about not holding him in solitary and refraining from employing psychological torture techniques o him were unconvincing and citing Amnesty International to that effect. This petition was granted in January by the UK High Court.

Assange has been detained in the Belmarsh prison since his arrest in April of 2019. On Saturday, Stella Morris, disclosed via Twitter, that the Belmarsh prison had granted them permission to wed, the nuptial ceremony is scheduled for March 23. However, given the current circumstances it is unclear if the permission remains.

Assange lived for seven years in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London, where UK authorities denied him permission to leave due to a Swedish lead investigation for alleged sexual misconduct, which was later dismissed. In 2019, Washington's unsealing of an indictment related to the journalist's 2010 publication of classified U.S. documents, related to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, confirmed that UK authorities' actions were only a pretext to get him extradited to the U.S.