Assange extradition could take years

Human Rights lawyer, Shoib M Khan says it is likely that Wikileaks founder Julian Assange will end up in the States.

But he added that it could take months or years to reach that stage.

Given the extradition treaty between the UK and US, Khan said that it is likely the UK will have to honour it.

The Swedish prosecutor is now under pressure to reopen the sexual assault case against Assange which it was forced to drop in 2017. Should this happen, two competing extradition treaties will be invoked, both of which the UK will have to honour.

Speaking in a press conference hours after the arrest, Assange’s lawyer Jen Robinson said that the arrest set a “dangerous precedent” for those “publishing truthful information about the United States”.

Human Rights Lawyer Shoib M Khan agrees with this assessment saying that even though the charges that have been charged against him from the US seem to be the lighter ones of trying to hack a computer, it was previously thought that maybe the US would try and bring the strongest charge they could, maybe espionage or something similar which they haven’t done.

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange was arrested in London Thursday morning, after 7 years of political asylum at the Ecuadorian Embassy.

Assange entered the embassy following sexual assault allegations in Sweden, fearing that once he was in court, he would be extradited to the US to face further charges.

On Thursday, Ecuador removed the protection of political asylum, after the UK assured them that they would not put Assange in a position where he would face the death penalty or torture.

Now that Assange has been remanded in custody in the UK, the US have brought federal conspiracy charges against him, putting the UK in the position of having to honour their extradition treaty.

Via Euronews