WikiLeaks’s founder Julian Assange is set to attend court hearing in London today in a case that could mark a pivotal moment in his years-long legal battle to avoid extradition to the United States.
London’s High Court is expected to rule on whether it accepts US assurances that Assange, 52, will be given a fair trial and will not face the death penalty, and therefore can safely extradite him to the US.
The ruling could pave the way for Assange to be transferred across the Atlantic to face 18 charges – all except one under the Espionage Act – over Wikileaks’s release of thousands of confidential US military records and diplomatic cables.
These include secret US military reports about the Afghanistan and Iraq wars released in 2010.
WikiLeaks also published a US military video showing what it described as the “indiscriminate slaying of over a dozen people”, including two Reuters news staff, by Apache helicopters in Iraq’s capital, Baghdad.
The US said the release of confidential documents had imperilled the lives of its agents.
The upcoming hearing could take the US a step closer to prosecuting the biggest security breach in its military history, setting a precedent that may have ripple effects for global media freedom.
