Julian Assange has begun a UK High Court Appeal against his extradition to the US to face sabotage charges. The US government claimed that his whistleblowing website, Wikileaks (est. 2006), put lives at risk and damaged the country’s national security by allegedly breaking into US military databases and disclosing secret information in 2010 and 2011.

The Wikileaks founder, best known for releasing in the public domain military documents relating to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, has been confined in HM Prison Belmarsh in London since April 2019. Prior to that, he’d claimed political asylum at the Ecuadorian embassy in Knightsbridge since 2012.

The US Department of Justice formally requested UK authorities to hand Assange over to the US to face charges. He’s been facing an extradition order since 2022, but is appealing the case. Assange’s legal team has argued that he cannot receive a fair trial in the US and that the extradition request is politically motivated.

Human Rights activists see the outcome of the case as a landmark decision on press freedom, which they argue should be protected since WikiLeaks served the public interest by exposing alleged war crimes and human rights abuses during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. In 2010, Wikileaks released a video from a US military helicopter which appears to show civilians being killed in the Iraqi capital Baghdad. 

His supporters emphasise that he has already suffered through years of exile and confinement and that the charges against him represent an unprecedented attack on freedom of speech and the public’s right to know. Additionally, his legal team has argued that extradition to the United States would pose a serious risk to his life and health.

If Assange’s appeal fails in the High Court on Wednesday, his lawyers plans to appeal the decision in the European Court of Human Rights. However, a hypothetically favourable ruling in the ECHR may not come in time to prevent his extradition.

If convicted in the US, where he faces 17 counts of espionage and one charge of computer intrusion, he could serve a sentence of up to 175 years.