And, just like that, it was all over.
14 years of efforts by the UK, US and Sweden to have Mr Assange extradited to face prosecution have resulted in a plea to a single charge of espionage – to which he has been sentenced to time served.
How did we get here? And what might have been the prompt for the US to accept what seems like a very un-Trumpian ‘bad deal’? This article hopes to shed some light.
Julian’s Calendar – How We Came to Be Where We are
An order to extradite Mr Assange to Sweden was first made back on 24 February 2011. Permission to appeal was dismissed in November 2011 and then May 2012.
Mr Assange fled to the Ecuadorian Embassy soon after and the offences for which he was charged in Sweden (sexual molestation) became time barred in August 2015. The rape allegations were discontinued in May 2017.
Nonetheless, the US requested Mr Assange’s extradition in December 2018 for conspiring (in 2010-2011) to unlawfully access computers to obtain classified information. 18 counts of espionage and computer hacking were indicted by the US in June 2019. Mr Assange’s first US extradition hearing started on 24 February 2020.
Mr Assange initially convinced the courts he should not be extradited due to being a suicide risk given US prison conditions. However, the CPS – armed with US assurances as to the location and conditions of Mr Assange’s incarceration – appealed successfully.
From here, Mr Assange was refused permission to appeal by the Supreme Court in March 2022, and again in June 2023.
However, on 26 March 2024, came a crucial decision. The High Court ruled that, unless satisfactory assurances were provided by the US, leave to appeal would be granted on the grounds that Mr Assange might be prejudiced in a US criminal trial due to his nationality (and potentially consequent lack of First Amendment protection) and because of inadequate death penalty protection. Those assurances were provided; however the High Court was only partially convinced in its decision of 20 May 2024. The Court accepted the death penalty assurance. But it did not accept the assurances that Mr Assange would be able to raise a defence under the US Constitution’s First Amendment and that he would not be prejudiced on account of his nationality. Permission to appeal was therefore granted on these two grounds.
Soon after, Mr Assange agreed a deal with US authorities to plead guilty to a single espionage charge (conspiracy to violate the Espionage Act) in the US District Court in Saipan (a Pacific US Commonwealth island), after which the US would drop its extradition request. He entered his plea on 26 June 2024 and was sentenced to time served. The US dropped its extradition request, and on 28 June 2024, the High Court ordered the decision of the Secretary of State to extradite Mr Assange to be quashed.
The Art of The Deal: Why the US Said Yes
Why the change, indeed the climbdown, from the US wanting a wide-ranging 18-count prosecution to accepting a plea to a single charge? A win it certainly is for Assange; but it seems like a poor deal for the US…