Wikileaks’ Assange Launches Extradition Appeal

By

Lawyers for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange have lodged papers at the High Court for an appeal against a ruling that he should be extradited to Sweden to face sex offence charges, his defence team confirmed Thursday.

A court official also confirmed that the papers had been lodged, but no date has yet been set for a hearing.

The extradition ruling was made last month at Belmarsh Magistrates’ Court in south-east London.

United Kingdom
United Kingdom

The 39-year-old Australian is accused of sexually assaulting one woman and raping another during a week-long visit to Stockholm in August.

After the extradition ruling Assange criticised the European arrest warrant system and said he had “always known” he would have to appeal against the decision.

The ruling against him came as a result of “a European arrest warrant system run amok”, he claimed. He said: “There was no consideration during this entire process as to the merit of the allegations made against me, no consideration or examination of even the complaints made in Sweden and of course we have always known we would appeal.”

It is not known whether a hearing at the High Court will take place before the Easter break in April, the lawyers said.

Assange was responsible for the release of thousands of secret US diplomatic cables, which led to great controversy worldwide.

KUNA

KUNA is the Kuwait News Agency

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *