Julian Assange's wife, legal team to 'use every appeal avenue' against US extradition

By Ahmet Gurhan Kartal

LONDON (AA) - The British Home Office's decision to extradite Julian Assange to the US is "not the end of the road," the WikiLeaks co-founder's legal team and wife said on Friday.

In a press conference shortly after the extradition decision was announced, Assange's wife Stella Moris vowed to fight the decision.

Morris said she spoke with Assange after the decision and that this was how he found out.

“We're not at the end of the road here," Morris said. "We're going to use every appeal avenue and we're going to fight."

"I'm going to spend every waking hour fighting for Julian, until he's free, until justice is served," she pledged.

British Home Secretary Priti Patel signed an order to extradite WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange to the US earlier on Friday.

- Grave threat

"This is the outcome that we have been concerned about for the last decade," said Jennifer Robinson, one of Assange's lawyers.

She underlined that the extradition decision was "a grave threat to freedom of speech, not just for Julian but for every journalist and editor, and media worker in this country."

"He faces 175 years in prison for publishing information, which he's won journalism awards the world over and has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize."

Robinson said they would "use every appeal mechanism available" to prevent the extradition.

"We continue to call upon the Biden administration to drop this case because of the grave threat it poses to free speech everywhere and across the United States. And we continue to call on the Australian government to take action and to protect this Australian citizen who is at risk."

- Threat to free speech

Tim Dawson, from the International Federation of Journalists, said Assange's prosecution in the US, would be a clear threat to "any journalist" who received information revealing criminal activity by states.

"We'd all hoped that this home secretary would exercise both humanity and a respect for free speech and for the democracy that supports and she has chosen not to, which is a matter of great regret."

"We can only hope that the remaining legal routes will provide some means by which this extradition and prosecution can be prevented."

- Appeal

Robinson added that they would be appealing this decision.

"We also have our cross-appeal. So basically, we have the ability to enliven our cross-appeal points."

"We still have our outstanding cross-appeal points, which include, for example, the free speech arguments, the fact of his inability to get a fair trial in the United States, the political nature of the case, and the offense for which he has been sought.

"The abusive process in this case, including spying on Julian and us as his legal team, and a range of other points that will be raised."

Robinson confirmed that they have 14 days to file an appeal.

"There's some potential longer extension of time after that point, but we will appeal this all the way through the British courts and if necessary to the European Court of Human Rights," she added.

- Threats to Assange

Moris said the extradition order "rests on a decision to reverse the initial outcome of a decision by the High Court to accept assurances that are severely flawed that the Amnesty International calls that decision a travesty."

She said: "We're going to raise points that have come up since the original extradition hearing back in 2020.

"And especially one of the most important developments is the revelation that the CIA plotted to assassinate Julian while he was in the Ecuadorian Embassy and kidnap him and rendition him and was exploring poisoning him.

"This is known to the Home Secretary but she signed it off anyway. But, we will be raising it on appeal," she underlined.

Assange's extradition order was passed to the secretary by the UK courts last month, confirming that the US assurances on how Assange would be treated were sufficient for extradition.

The order said the UK courts found that the extradition would not be "incompatible with his human rights," adding that he would be "treated appropriately" in the US.