Australia will not challenge Julian Assange's extradition to the United States

Australia will not challenge the decision of the United Kingdom Justice on the extradition to the United States of WikiLeaks founder, Australian Julian Assange, to stand trial for alleged espionage and computer intrusion, the ocean country's finance minister Simon Birmingham said Thursday.

“We are confident in the independence and integrity of the British judicial system. Our expectation is that, as always, it operates correctly, transparently and independently,” the Australian minister told the public broadcaster ABC.

His statements come after the chief judge of the Westminster Magistrates Court, Paul Golspring, issued on Wednesday the order to surrender Assange to the United States, which must be considered by the British Minister of the Interior, Priti Patel, within two months, which are extendable.

Patel's eventual decision may be appealed by the parties, but only if the High Court authorizes it, although the defence also believes that it has as its last resort the option of appealing to the European Court of Human Rights

Washington claims Assange to prosecute him for 18 crimes of espionage and computer intrusion for the revelations on his portal about U.S. abuses at his Guantánamo detention center, Cuba, as well as alleged war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The 50-year-old former hacker, whose portal also revealed hundreds of thousands of confidential diplomatic cables that shamed governments around the world, faces a 175-year prison sentence in the United States.

Assange's legal battle began more than ten years ago when he was charged with alleged sex crimes, which have been shelved, which resulted in house arrest and asylum at the Ecuadorian embassy in London between 2012 and 2019, and then moved to Belmarsh prison after being reapprehended at the request of the United States.

(With information from EFE)

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