A British high court on Wednesday denied an extradition appeal from Wikileaks head Julian Assange, who could be sent to Sweden within days if further appeals are unsuccessful.
According to the Guardian, two British high court judges, Lord Justice Thomas and Mr. Justice Ouseley, upheld the ruling that Assange must be extradited in order to answer to allegations of sexual misconduct. Lawyers for the WikiLeaks editor say they’ll appeal, and they have 14 days to bring the case to the Supreme Court. However, in order to be granted an appeal, they must prove that the case is an issue of wider “public importance.”
If the appeal is denied, the Guardian said Assange will likely be extradited to Sweden within 10 days.
In February, district judge Howard Riddle ruled that Assange must be extradited to Sweden to take part in the investigation. Assange, whose whistle-blowing site began the release of more than 250,000 confidential U.S. diplomatic cables last fall, believes that the charges are politically motivated.
His lawyers argued that the European arrest warrant (EAW) that facilitated Assange’s arrest was not valid on the grounds that it was issued by a prosecutor rather than a “judicial authority.”
However the BBC said the judges dismissed this claim, saying that the warrant was subject to independent review by Swedish judges, “which as judges of another [EU] member state, we must respect.”
“This is self evidently not a case relating to a trivial offence, but to serious sexual offences,” they continued.
Assange gave a statement on the steps of the courthouse after the ruling was given.
“I have not been charged with any crime in any country,” he said. “Despite this, the European arrest warrant is so restrictive that it prevents U.K. courts from considering the facts for a case. We’ll be considering our next step. No doubt there will be many attempts made to try to spin these proceedings as they occurred today but they were merely technical.”
Assange was granted bail in December. Since then, he has been held on house arrest north of London at a friend's estate.
WikiLeaks, meanwhile, last week said it would temporarily suspend publishing operations to focus on raising funds and fighting the financial blockade imposed last December by PayPal, Bank of America, Visa, and MasterCard.