The High Court in London today began a two-day hearing of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange's appeal against his extradition to the United States. This legal action could be the 52-year-old Australian's last in the British courts.

A report published by the British portal Global Usa NewsAccording to the report, the judges will have to assess the verdict handed down in June 2023 by London High Court judge Jonathan Swift. The judge dismissed Assange's lawyers' appeal against the order to extradite the Australian from the UK to the US.

If the appeal is successful, Assange's defense will have the opportunity to challenge his extradition to the United States in the British courts. If not, they will be deprived of this instrument. One of the last possibilities to prevent the WikiLeaks founder from being transferred to the United States in this scenario could be an appeal to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).

However, it is not yet clear whether Assange will attend the hearing in person or via video link from the high-security Belmarsh prison in London, where he has been held since 2019, after being removed from the Ecuadorian embassy in London. For more than four years, Washington has been pressuring London to extradite him to the US, but Assange's defense has made new attempts to stop it.

In June 2022, the then head of the UK Home Office, Priti Patel, decided to extradite Assange to the United States, following a review of the case by Westminster Magistrates' Court and the High Court in London. The UK Home Office indicated that the British courts had not come to the conclusion that Assange's extradition would be repressive, unfair or that there would be an unlawful use of the judicial process. WikiLeaks has previously stressed that the prosecution of the Australian has always been a political issue.

Assange is accused in the United States of crimes related to the biggest case of disclosure of confidential information in American history. He could be sentenced to 175 years in prison for all the charges. In November 2023, the main Western publications, including The New York Times, The Guardian, The Times, Le Monde and El País, called on the US government to drop the charges against Assange.