"Political Prosecution": WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange Faces Final U.K. Appeal to Avoid U.S. Extradition

The final day of a critical appeal for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is underway today at the British High Court of Justice, in what could be Assange’s last chance to stop his extradition to the United States. Assange faces a 175-year prison sentence for publishing classified documents exposing U.S. war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan. While the WikiLeaks founder’s health is reportedly deteriorating rapidly, his lawyers are arguing the case is politically motivated to target Assange for exposing “state-level crimes.” Meanwhile, U.S. lawyers are attempting to portray Assange as a hacker rather than a journalist. “It’s clear to everyone that Assange is a journalist. He revealed more criminality by the world’s most powerful country than anyone’s ever done in history,” says Matt Kennard, head of investigations at Declassified UK, who lays out the proceedings so far, what to expect from the British justice system and the precedent an Assange extradition would set for global journalism. “It will be a huge nail in the coffin for investigative journalism, for any kind of publishing of information that state powers don’t like, and it will be used by repressive regimes all around the world.”