Following the decision of the United Kingdom's Information Tribunal to recognize Wikileaks as a media, the US authorities are less likely to seek the extradition of its founder Julian Assange, the British daily The Guardian writes.
Julian Assange's lawyers now have every right to raise the issue of freedom of expression to protect their client from extradition to the United States after the UK's information tribunal recognized WikiLeaks as a media outlet, writes Guardian.
"WikiLeaks is a media organization that publishes and comments on classified official documents or official service documents concerning war, surveillance or corruption, leaked in various circumstances," the newspaper quoted the court as saying.
Recall that CIA Director Mike Pompeo, after leaked e-mails from the Democratic Party of America, including those of Hillary Clinton, described WikiLeaks as "a non-state intelligence service hostile often helped by state actors like the Russia". He also stressed that Assange did not enjoy the privileges of the First Amendment to the US Constitution which protects, among other things, the freedom of the press. "He's in an embassy in London, he's not an American citizen," he said.
Julian Assange has been a refugee at the Embassy of Ecuador in London since June 2012 to avoid extradition to Sweden, where he is accused of rape, which he denies. The founder of WikiLeaks says he is worried that Stockholm will send him to the United States, where he is expected to respond to WikiLeaks' release of military and diplomatic documents revealed by Chelsea Manning.
On 19 May the Swedish public prosecutor's office declared that he had withdrawn the European arrest warrant against Assange. Contrary to the first information, according to which if the proceedings against him were abandoned Mr. Assange intends to ask the political asylum to France, his lawyer, Juan Branco, denied such a will on behalf of his client, but underlined that the determination of the French Government to intervene would be welcomed.