Assange in last-ditch bid to block US extradition

London: Lawyers for Julian Assange will make one last attempt to block his extradition to the US, where he faces decades in prison over spying charges in the long-running battle that's spanned more than a decade.

The WikiLeaks founder asked a London judge for permission to appeal the UK's 2022 decision to extradite him to the US where he's charged with criminal espionage for leaking classified documents. His lawyers argue that sending him to the US would breach his human rights while other supporters say it would be an attack on free speech.

Lawyers for Assange said in court on Tuesday that exposing state criminality is a political act of opinion that should prevent him being sent to the US.


The UK approved his transfer to the US in 2022 after a court signed off on the decision. A previous judge initially blocked his extradition over concerns he would kill himself if sent to a high security prison.

Assange, 52-years-old, has been in prison or in the Ecuadorian embassy in London since 2012, as he fought attempts to send him to face charges first in Sweden and then in the US.

The Swedish case against him was dropped, but the US government in 2019 charged him under spying laws for his role in releasing hundreds of thousands of pages of classified documents via WikiLeaks, with the help of US Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning.

"There could not be more at stake in a single court case than there is in the Julian's case," Stella Assange, his wife, said in a statement. "Journalists must have the right to report the facts that governments and corporations want to hide, otherwise a truly free press is impossible."