British court approves extradition of Julian Assange to US
Britain's Westminster Magistrate's Court issued a formal order on Wednesday to extradite WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to the United States to face espionage charges.
The decision on whether to approve the extradition now rests with British Home Secretary Priti Patel, although Assange's lawyers may still appeal within 14 days against any decision that approves the extradition.
Last month, Britain's Supreme Court denied Assange permission to appeal against a High Court decision to extradite him to the United States.
Assange, 50, is wanted in the United States on allegations of disclosing national defence information following WikiLeaks's publication of hundreds of thousands of leaked military documents relating to the Afghanistan and Iraq wars a decade ago, which included video footage from an Apache helicopter documenting the U.S. military gunning down Reuters journalists and children in Baghdad's streets in 2007.
He has been held at South London's high-security Belmarsh Prison since 2019. He married his long-term partner Stella Moris, a lawyer, in the prison last month.
Lawyers for the United States said earlier that Assange would be allowed to transfer to Australia, his home country, to serve any prison sentence he may be given.