WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is set to be extradited to the US, the High Court has ruled - but what are the accusations and extradition details?

Editor and activist Julian Assange, 50, is wanted in America over an alleged conspiracy to obtain and disclose national defence information.

Here's what we know about Julian Assange's extradition details and the accusations against him.

What is Julian Assange accused of doing?

Assange is wanted in America over an alleged conspiracy to obtain and disclose national defence information following WikiLeaks’s publication of hundreds of thousands of leaked documents relating to the Afghanistan and Iraq wars.

In the US extradition case, Julian Assange faces 18 charges including conspiracy to commit computer intrusion.

Assange came to the fore in 2010 with the publication of damaging classified US documents.

While his activities won him high praise, it also spawned powerful enemies, with Donald Trump once calling for the death penalty.

Assange is accused of working with former US army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning in order to leak hundreds of thousands of classified documents.

Speaking on Friday, December 10, Julian Assange’s fiancee Stella Moris said: "Today, it’s been almost a year since I stood outside court with our victory of the blocking of the extradition.

“For the past… two years and a half, Julian has remained in Belmarsh prison, and in fact he has been detained since December 7 2010 in one form or another, 11 years. For how long can this go on?

“Today is international human rights day, what a shame. How cynical to have this decision on this day.

“To have… the foremost publisher, journalist, of the past 50 years in a UK prison, accused of publishing the truth about war crimes, about CIA kill teams.”

Assange has been held in Belmarsh Prison since 2019 after he was carried out of the Ecuadorian embassy by police before being arrested for breaching his bail conditions.

He had entered the building in 2012 - in part to avoid extradition to Sweden to face sex offence allegations, which he has always denied and were eventually dropped.

He stayed there for nearly seven years before serving a 50-week jail sentence for breaching his bail.

Since then, he has been held on remand as lawyers fight against his extradition to the US.

What are the US extradition details for Julian Assange?

 

US authorities brought a High Court challenge against a January ruling by then-district judge Vanessa Baraitser that Assange should not be sent to the US, in which she cited a real and “oppressive” risk of suicide.

After a two-day hearing in October, the Lord Chief Justice Lord Burnett, sitting with Lord Justice Holroyde, ruled in favour of the US on Friday.

The senior judges found that the judge had based her decision on the risk of Assange being held in highly restrictive prison conditions if extradited.

However, the US authorities later gave assurances that Assange would not face those strictest measures either pre-trial or post-conviction unless he committed an act in the future that required them.

Lord Burnett said: “That risk is in our judgment excluded by the assurances which are offered. It follows that we are satisfied that, if the assurances had been before the judge, she would have answered the relevant question differently.”

He added: “That conclusion is sufficient to determine this appeal in the USA’s favour.”

The US also said it would consent to Assange being transferred to Australia to serve any prison sentence he may be given.

Assange’s fiancee Stella Moris called the ruling “dangerous and misguided” and revealed her intention to appeal the case.