Assange v Government of the United States of America [2024] EWHC 700 (Admin)

This judgment of Dame Victoria Sharp, President of the King's Bench Division, and Mr Justice Johnson decided my renewed application for leave to appeal against the Home Secretary's extradition order of 17 June 2022 and the district judge's January 2021 decision. Leave had been refused on the papers by Mr Justice Swift on 6 June 2023.

The court refused leave on six grounds, including arguments that extradition was barred by the US–UK treaty, was sought to prosecute me for my political opinions, and would breach articles 2, 3, 6 and 7 of the European Convention on Human Rights. It found three grounds arguable: that extradition would be incompatible with freedom of expression under article 10; that I might be prejudiced at trial by reason of my nationality; and that protection against the death penalty was inadequate.

Rather than grant leave immediately, the court adjourned the application until 20 May 2024 and gave the United States until 16 April 2024 to file assurances that I could rely on the First Amendment, would not be prejudiced at trial by my nationality, and would not face the death penalty. If no assurances were filed, leave would be granted.

The judgment was handed down on 26 March 2024 and published with a press summary by the Courts and Tribunals Judiciary and on Find Case Law. The United States filed assurances, and at the hearing on 20 May 2024 the court granted leave to appeal, with the appeal to proceed on the free-speech and nationality grounds (NPR, via OPB); no written decision from that hearing appears on the judiciary's website.

The appeal, listed for 9–10 July 2024, never took place. After the United States withdrew its extradition request by diplomatic note on 26 June 2024, following my guilty plea in Saipan, the court ordered by consent on 28 June 2024 that I be discharged, quashed the Home Secretary's extradition decision and discontinued the appeal.