Assange gets chance to appeal US extradition

LONDON－WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on Monday was given the chance to appeal against a decision to extradite him to the United States.

Washington wants to put Assange on trial in connection with WikiLeaks' publication of 500,000 secret military files relating to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The decision is the latest step in Assange's long battle to avoid trial on a series of charges related to WikiLeaks' publication of classified documents more than a decade ago.

The High Court in London in December overturned a lower court's ruling not to send him to the United States on the grounds he would be a suicide risk.

Lawyers for Assange then challenged the decision, arguing that the country's highest court should rule on "points of law of general public importance".

"The respondent's application to certify a point of law is granted," said judges Ian Burnett and Timothy Holroyde in a written ruling.

The judges said that they themselves were not granting him a right of appeal at the Supreme Court.

But Assange had the right to pursue the point of law in the highest court, which can decide whether to take the case.

This means the Supreme Court will have to decide whether or not it should hear his challenge.

"Julian won," Stella Morris, his fiancee and the mother of his two young children, wrote on Twitter.

"It is now for the Supreme Court to decide whether it will hear Julian's appeal."

Crowds gathered outside the Royal Courts of Justice in central London and welcomed the decision.

Assange, 50, has been held at London's Belmarsh prison since 2019, despite having served a previous sentence for breaching bail conditions in a separate case.

Assange's lawyers challenged US assurances that he would not be held in punishing isolation at a federal supermax prison, and would receive appropriate care.

His supporters have long argued that his physical and mental health has been affected by being held on remand at the high-security prison in southeast London.

Agencies Via Xinhua