WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been given permission to have a full appeal over his extradition to the United States after arguing at London's High Court he might not be able to rely on his right to free speech at a trial.
Two judges at the High Court said they had given him leave to have a full appeal to hear his argument that he might be discriminated against on the basis the Australian-born Assange is a foreign national.
Hundreds of protesters had gathered outside the court ahead of what was a key ruling after 13 years of legal battles, with two judges asked to declare whether they were satisfied by US assurances that Assange, 52, could rely on the First Amendment right if he is tried for spying in the US.
The news was met outside court by an eruption of cheering and singing.
Assange's legal team had said if he lost he could be on a plane across the Atlantic within 24 hours.
In court, his lawyer Edward Fitzgerald said the judges should not accept the assurance given by US prosecutors that Assange could seek to rely upon the rights and protections given under the First Amendment, as a US court would not be bound by this.
"We say this is a blatantly inadequate assurance," he told the court.
Fitzgerald accepted a separate assurance that Assange would not face the death penalty, saying the US had provided an "unambiguous promise not to charge any capital offence".
The US said its First Amendment assurances were sufficient.
James Lewis, representing the US authorities, said it made clear that Assange would not be discriminated against because of his nationality in any US trial or hearing.
Asaange's legal team were buoyant after the decision was made. Fitzgerald said it could be months before the appeal was heard.
Stella Assange, wife of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. – Reuters
WikiLeaks released hundreds of thousands of classified US military documents on Washington's wars in Afghanistan and Iraq - the largest security breaches of their kind in US military history - along with swathes of diplomatic cables.
In April 2010 it published a classified video showing a 2007 US helicopter attack that killed a dozen people in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, including two Reuters news staff.
The US authorities want to put the Australian-born Assange on trial over 18 charges, nearly all under the Espionage Act, saying his actions with WikiLeaks were reckless, damaged national security, and endangered the lives of agents.
His many global supporters call the prosecution a travesty, an assault on journalism and free speech, and revenge for causing embarrassment. Calls for the case to be dropped have ranged from human rights groups and some media bodies, to Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and other political leaders.
Assange was first arrested in Britain in 2010 on a Swedish warrant over allegations that were later dropped.
Since then he has been variously under house arrest, holed up in Ecuador's embassy in London for seven years, and held since 2019 in Belmarsh top security jail, latterly while he waited a ruling on his extradition.
"Every day since the seventh of December 2010 he has been in one form of detention or another," said Stella Assange.
She was originally part of his legal team and married him in Belmarsh in 2022.
Stella Assange had said that, whatever the outcome, she would continue to fight for his liberty.
If he is freed, she said she would follow him to Australia or wherever he was safe.
If he is extradited, she said all the psychiatric evidence presented at court had concluded he was at serious risk.
Protesters gather in front of the Pantheon in Rome in support of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. – AP
What Assange is charged with
Assange, 52, an Australian computer expert, has been indicted in the US on 18 charges over Wikileaks' publication of hundreds of thousands of classified documents in 2010.
Prosecutors say he conspired with US army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning to hack into a Pentagon computer and release secret diplomatic cables and military files on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
He faces 17 counts of espionage and one charge of computer misuse. If convicted, his lawyers say he could receive a prison term of up to 175 years, though American authorities have said any sentence is likely to be much lower.
Assange and his supporters argue he acted as a journalist to expose US military wrongdoing and is protected under press freedoms guaranteed by the First Amendment to the US Constitution.
Among the files published by WikiLeaks was video of a 2007 Apache helicopter attack by American forces in Baghdad that killed 11 people, including two Reuters journalists.
"Julian has been indicted for receiving, possessing and communicating information to the public of evidence of war crimes committed by the US government," his wife, Stella Assange, said. "Reporting a crime is never a crime."
US lawyers say Assange is guilty of trying to hack the Pentagon computer and that WikiLeaks' publications created a "grave and imminent risk" to US intelligence sources in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Why the case has dragged on so long
While the US criminal case against Assange was only unsealed in 2019, his freedom has been restricted for a dozen years.
Assange took refuge in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London in 2012 and was granted political asylum after courts in England ruled he should be extradited to Sweden as part of a rape investigation in the Scandinavian country.
He was arrested by British police after Ecuador's government withdrew his asylum status in 2019 and then jailed for skipping bail when he first took shelter inside the embassy.
Although Sweden eventually dropped its sex crimes investigation because so much time had elapsed, Assange has remained in London's high-security Belmarsh Prison while the extradition battle with the US continues.
His wife said his mental and physical health have deteriorated behind bars.
"He's fighting to survive and that's a daily battle," she said.
A judge in London initially blocked Assange's transfer to the US in 2021 on the grounds he was likely to kill himself if held in harsh American prison conditions.
But subsequent courts cleared the way for the move after US authorities provided assurances he wouldn't experience the severe treatment that his lawyers said would put his physical and mental health at risk.
The British government authorised Assange's extradition in 2022.
What the latest hearing is about
Assange's lawyers raised nine grounds for appeal at a hearing in February, including the allegation that his prosecution is political.
The court accepted three of his arguments, issuing a provisional ruling in March that said Assange could take his case to the Court of Appeal unless the US guaranteed he would not face the death penalty if extradited and would have the same free speech protections as a US citizen.
The US provided those reassurances three weeks later, though his supporters are skeptical.
Stella Assange said the "so-called assurances" were made up of "weasel words."
WikiLeaks Editor-in-Chief Kristinn Hrafnsson said the judges had asked if Assange could rely on First Amendment protections.
"It should be an easy yes or no question," Hrafnsson said. "The answer was, 'He can seek to rely on First Amendment protections.' That is a 'no.' So the only rational decision on Monday is for the judges to come out and say, 'This is not good enough.' Anything else is a judicial scandal."
The possible outcomes
If Assange prevails, it would set the stage for an appeal process likely to further drag out the case.
If an appeal is rejected, his legal team plans to ask the European Court of Human Rights to intervene. But his supporters fear Assange could possibly be transferred before the court in Strasbourg, France, could halt his removal.
"Julian is just one decision away from being extradited," his wife said.
Assange has been encouraged by the work others have done in the political fight to free him, his wife said.
If he loses in court, he still may have another shot at freedom.
President Joe Biden said last month that he was considering a request from Australia to drop the case and let Assange return to his home country.
Officials have no other details but Stella Assange said it was "a good sign" and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the comment was encouraging.