Visit our website:
http://www.france24.com
Like us on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/FRANCE24.English
Follow us on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/France24_en
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00 The WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is set to find out today if he has won a reprieve
00:04 in his last-ditch UK legal battle to avoid extradition to the United States.
00:09 The Australian national is seeking permission to appeal a ruling that could see him
00:14 sent to face a US trial on espionage charges. Here's more now from his wife Stella Assange.
00:20 We hope that the courts do the right thing today
00:27 and find in Julian's favor. But if they don't, we will take an emergency
00:32 injunction. We will seek an emergency injunction from the European Court of Human Rights.
00:38 Well, the two high court judges in London handling Assange's request adjourned the case in March,
00:45 asking US government lawyers to return with quote "satisfactory assurances that he would
00:50 not face the death penalty if convicted." For the very latest on this from London,
00:55 let's bring in France 24's Benedict Pavia. Benedict, we just heard Assange's wife there
00:59 a moment ago speaking at the Royal Court of Justice. The decision is coming out later today,
01:04 but there has been quite a lot of commotion there outside the Royal Court of Justice.
01:08 Tell us a bit more about what's going on there.
01:09 Yes, so we're back at the High Court outside the Royal Courts of Justice here in London in the
01:18 Strand area. And there are a lot of very noisy protesters who've been here since early this
01:23 morning voicing their displeasure, their frustration, anger at the fact that Julian
01:30 Assange is back in court still in that legal limbo of not knowing whether he's going to be
01:36 extradited, excuse me, or not. Is his extradition imminent? That is what everybody is waiting to
01:42 find out. So we've had speeches this morning here, in fact, amongst others by Julian Assange's
01:50 brother, that was also the former leader of the Labour opposition, Jeremy Corbyn,
01:55 and also representative of the International Federation of Journalists, also representing
02:03 the National Union of Journalists, because they are fearful that Julian will be extradited,
02:10 and they are worried about that he could, he's risking his life, because we know that he has,
02:15 his health, mental and physical, has deteriorated and that he was deemed to be a suicide risk. Of
02:21 course, meanwhile, he has been for the last five years in the high security Belmarsh prison here
02:27 in London, so a lot is expected. The hearing has just started, and although Julian Assange,
02:32 the co-founder of WikiLeaks, was allowed to attend either in person or via video link,
02:40 we understand that he is not in court and not on a video link, because he's just not well enough.
02:45 Benedict, Julian Assange's legal battle has been going on for over a decade. Now,
02:51 why is today such an important one in that battle?
02:54 It has indeed been going on for some 13 years. We've been there since day one, when he went
03:03 for that interview to Scotland Yard and got arrested. And of course, in between that,
03:08 he then, having lost his initial battles in the British judicial system, having had an extradition
03:13 trial, and he lost that, then the High Court, he lost that, the Supreme Court, he lost that.
03:18 We are back here in the High Court, and the reason it's so significant is that if the United States
03:25 is deemed to have provided enough assurances that he can get a fair trial, if extradited to the
03:32 United States, then it would be the end of his judicial legal battle here in the United Kingdom.
03:41 His only recourse and the defence, and indeed his wife Stella Assange, have made it very clear,
03:46 they would then immediately apply to the European Court of Human Rights, the ECHR,
03:51 and try and get an injunction to stop that extradition. So this is really very high stakes.
03:57 If on the contrary, it is deemed that he wins, then he would get a full appeal. And that legal
04:03 situation then would take maybe some months, maybe a year for him to have that full hearing,
04:10 which is what he and his team want, because they believe they have exposed,
04:15 really, during the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, human rights abuses. This is categorically
04:22 denied by the United States.
04:24 Benedict, thank you for that.
04:25 Benedict Pavio in London.