WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange won the right to challenge a British court’s decision to extradite him to the U.S. to face espionage charges, extending a yearslong legal battle that pitted U.S. and British authorities against the Australian national and free speech campaigners.
The U.K. High Court’s decision on Monday means that Assange, whose legal fight in Britain has been going on for more than 13 years, will have another chance to try to halt being transferred by British authorities to the U.S. to stand trial for disclosing American military secrets.
Assange’s lawyers argue the charges are politically motivated.
The 52-year-old hacker burst onto the world stage in 2010 with details from what was the biggest security breach of its kind in U.S. military history. The U.S. Justice Department indicted Assange in 2019 on 17 charges of espionage and one charge of computer misuse over his publication of classified U.S. diplomatic and military documents. Former U.S. Army intelligence analyst Chelea Manning served jail time for leaking documents to WikiLeaks.
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