WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange will learn on Monday whether a British judge has approved his extradition to the United States to face charges including espionage over the release of secret U.S. military documents.
Assange is accused of 18 counts of conspiring to hack government computers and of breaching a secrecy law by releasing vast troves of confidential military records and diplomatic cables over a decade ago by the U.S. authorities.
The Australian-born Assange could go to prison for 30 to 40 years, his lawyers say, though prosecutors say he would face no more than 63 months in jail.
The losing party on Monday is likely to appeal to London’s High Court and the case could go to the United Kingdom’s Supreme Court, further delaying the final outcome.
U.S. prosecutors and Western security officials see the accused as a reckless and dangerous enemy of the state whose actions put at risk the lives of agents whose names were in the material.
WikiLeaks is an international non-profit organisation that publishes news leaks and classified media provided by anonymous sources. It came to international attention in 2010 when it published a series of classified cables that had been sent to the U.S. State Department 274 of its consulates, embassies, and diplomatic missions around the world.
