![Stella Morris the wife of Julian Assange talks to the media outside Westminster Magistrates' Court in London, in April 2022. [Morning Star]](/news/photo/202206/127389_111366_442.jpg)
![European human rights experts have joined the campaign urging the UK government not to extradite controversial Wikileaks chief Julian Assange to face trial in the United States, warning that it could have a ‘chilling effect’ on media freedom. [EPA=Yonhap]](/news/photo/202206/127389_111368_512.jpg)
The wife of Julian Assange has vowed to fight using every possible legal avenue after UK Home Secretary Priti Patel approved the WikiLeaks' founder's extradition to the United States to face criminal charges.
Assange is wanted by US authorities on 18 counts, including a spying charge, relating to WikiLeaks' release of vast troves of confidential US military records and diplomatic cables which its officials say had put lives in danger.
His supporters say he is an anti-establishment hero who has been victimised because he exposed US wrongdoing in conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, and that his prosecution is a politically motivated assault on journalism and free speech.
His wife Stella said Assange would appeal after the Home Office said his extradition had been approved as UK courts had concluded it would not be unjust or an abuse of process.
"We're going to fight this. We're going to use every appeal avenue," Stella Assange told reporters, calling the decision a "travesty".
Assange and his supporters argue that he is being punished for embarrassing those in power and faces 175 years in prison if found guilty, although the US lawyers have said it would be more like four to six years.
The Australian government said it would continue to tell the UK and US that the case had "dragged on for too long and should be brought to a close".
The legal saga began at the end of 2010 when Sweden sought Assange's extradition from the UK over allegations of sex crimes.
When he lost that case in 2012, he fled to the Ecuador's embassy in London, where he spent seven years.
When he was finally dragged out in April 2019, he was jailed for breaching UK bail conditions although the Swedish case against him had been dropped.
He has been fighting extradition to the US since June 2019 and remains in jail.
During his time in the Ecuadorian embassy he fathered two children with his now wife, who he married in Belmarsh high-security prison in London in March at a ceremony attended by just four guests, two official witnesses and two guards.
Shipton on Friday said the decision set a dangerous precedent and urged US President Joe Biden's administration to drop the charges.
"UK government and judiciary at the highest level has found that if you publish evidence of corruption, war crimes and torture in the UK you may be extradited to a third country," Shipton said.
"It is now up to President Biden to drop this prosecution and restore faith in the ability of the fourth estate to play their role in functioning democracies."
wiki@wikileaks-kr.org
