The extradition of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to the United States has moved into the political arena, his partner, Stella Morris, said after the British Supreme Court refused to accept an appeal.
According to Morris, the fate of Assange, whom Washington wants to try for exposing war crimes committed by the US military and publishing thousands of secret cables of the US diplomacy, is now in the hands of the British Minister of the Interior, Priti Patel.
This is a political case and she (Patel) can put an end to it, Morris said in a statement issued hours after the UK’s Supreme Court announced it would not allow Assange to appeal a decision by the London High Court of Justice favoring extradition.
Morris added that the Minister of the Interior also has the opportunity to put an end to the UK being the laughingstock at an international level by keeping Assange locked up in a maximum security prison for almost three years.
Assange has been imprisoned in London’s Belmarsh prison since the Government of Ecuador withdrew the diplomatic protection granted to him seven years ago and allowed the British Police to enter its embassy in London to arrest him on April 11th, 2019.
Although he has not been charged after serving a 50-week prison sentence for violating bail in 2012, the British justice decided to keep him locked up until the extradition case presented by the US prosecutor’s office is concluded.
If handed over to the US justice system, the founder of WikiLeaks could be sentenced to 175 years in prison, based on the 17 charges of espionage against him.
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