LONDON --
Britain's prime court docket on Monday refused WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange permission to enchantment towards a choice to extradite him to the U.S. to face spying fees.
The court docket mentioned it refused as a result of the case "did not elevate an debatable level of legislation."
Assange, 50, has hunted for years to keep away from a trial within the U.S. on a sequence of fees associated to WikiLeaks' publication of an enormous trove of categorized paperwork greater than a decade in the past.
The case is now anticipated to be formally despatched to British Residence Secretary Priti Patel, who will determine whether or not to grant the extradition.
A British district court docket choose had initially rejected a U.S. extradition request on the grounds that Assange was prone to kill himself if held beneath harsh U.S. jail situations. U.S. authorities later supplied assurances that the WikiLeaks founder would not face the extreme remedy that his legal professionals mentioned would put his bodily and psychological well being in danger.
In December, the Excessive Court docket overturned the decrease court docket's determination, saying that the U.S. guarantees had been sufficient to ensure that Assange can be handled humanely.
Monday's information narrows Assange's choices, however his protection workforce should still search to take his case to the European Court docket of Human Rights. Nick Vamos, the previous head of extradition on the Crown Prosecution Service, mentioned Assange's legal professionals may also search to problem different factors that he had misplaced within the unique district court docket determination.
Barry Pollack, Assange's U.S.-based lawyer, mentioned Monday that it was "extraordinarily disappointing" that Britain's Supreme Court docket is unwilling to listen to the enchantment.
"Mr. Assange will proceed the authorized course of combating his extradition to the USA to face felony fees for publishing truthful and newsworthy info," he mentioned.
Assange's British legal professionals, Birnberg Peirce Solicitors, mentioned they'll make submissions to the Residence Secretary inside the subsequent 4 weeks, forward of her making any determination.
American prosecutors say Assange unlawfully helped U.S. Military intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning steal categorized diplomatic cables and army information that WikiLeaks later printed, placing lives in danger.
However supporters and legal professionals for Assange argue that he was appearing as a journalist and is entitled to First Modification protections of freedom of speech for publishing paperwork that uncovered U.S. army wrongdoing in Iraq and Afghanistan. They argue that his case is politically motivated.
If convicted, Assange's legal professionals say he might withstand 175 years in jail within the U.S., although American authorities have mentioned the sentence was prone to be a lot decrease than that.
Assange has been held at Britain's high-security Belmarsh Jail in London since 2019, when he was arrested for skipping bail throughout a separate authorized battle. Earlier than that, he spent seven years contained in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London to keep away from extradition to Sweden to face allegations of rape and sexual assault.
Sweden dropped the intercourse crimes investigations in November 2019 as a result of a lot time had elapsed.
Assange's associate Stella Moris, who has two younger kids with him, mentioned Sunday they've been given permission to marry in jail later this month.
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Eric Tucker in Washington and Danica Kirka in London contributed to this report.
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