LONDON (Reuters) – WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who is trying to avoid extradition to the United States where he faces 175 years in prison for disseminating thousands of classified documents, has appealed to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), the court confirmed on Friday.
British authorities last June approved the extradition of the 51-year-old Australian, arrested in 2019 after spending more than seven years in the Ecuadorian embassy in London.
He is being prosecuted by the American courts on 18 counts related to the publication by WikiLeaks, from 2010, of hundreds of thousands of American military documents and confidential diplomatic cables which, according to Washington, put lives in danger.
Julian Assange has also appealed to the High Court in London, which is due to render its decision in early 2023.
“We confirm that we have received a request,” the ECHR, whose headquarters are in Strasbourg, were told.
(Report Michael Holden, with Kanishka Singh, French version Sophie Louet, edited by Bertrand Boucey)
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