On Tuesday, February 20 and Wednesday, February 21, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange potentially made his final attempt to influence the High Court in London, which is reviewing a request to appeal against the extradition proceedings initiated by the US. For two days, as protesters gathered outside the British courts, the judges listened to the arguments of his lawyers and American advisers. Their decision on whether to grant a final appeal hearing on this case is expected in the coming weeks.

The Australian whistleblower spent seven years in asylum in the Ecuadorian embassy before surrendering to British police in 2019 in connection with rape and sexual assault charges in Sweden and has since been fighting the extradition request by the US. He faces charges in the United States for publishing hundreds of thousands of confidential American documents on his WikiLeaks website since 2010. These documents notably exposed the significant casualties and impacts of the Iraq War. These publications were made in partnership with numerous international media, including Le Monde.

Assange's indictment is unprecedented in the US because he is being prosecuted under the Espionage Act. This strict law against leaking classified information has never before been used to target journalists. Assange faces up to 175 years in prison.

This week's hearings were the last chance for Assange's lawyers to block the extradition request. If they win, the WikiLeaks founder's camp would win the right to a further appeal hearing to challenge his transfer to the US, after which extradition is still a possibility. If this happens, Assange will still be able to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights, as his support committee points out.

In the first instance, in January 2021, the British courts refused extradition, citing the psychological state of health of the WikiLeaks founder and the difficult conditions of detention in the US, but without attacking the merits of the case.

Almost a year later, this initial decision was overturned by the High Court, which relied on a series of guarantees issued by the US authorities. Among other things, they promised that Assange would be properly treated in detention and would not be incarcerated in the ADX high-security facility in Colorado, where inmates are extremely isolated. The extradition request was then approved by the British courts and by the home secretary at the time, Priti Patel.

While the first decision, in 2021, was largely based on Assange's state of health, his lawyers this week put forward the right to freedom of expression and freedom of the press, arguing for the protections that should apply to the whistleblower. The WikiLeaks founder "has simply done a journalist's job by disseminating true information that raises questions of war crimes," his lawyer in France, Antoine Vey, told Le Monde.

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