The British justice issued on Wednesday the formal order authorizing the extradition of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to the United States to be tried for espionage for the publication of hundreds of thousands of secret documents starting in 2010.
The order will now be sent to Interior Minister Priti Patel, who has the final say on any extradition, and to whom Assange’s defense can present its allegations until May 18.
The US justice wants to try the Australian, 50 years old, for the dissemination in WikiLeaks since 2010 of more than 700 thousand classified documents on US diplomatic and military activities, which in particular revealed atrocities in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Read: Legality tips in the case of Julian Assange (and for Mexico in a row)
If convicted, Assange could be sentenced to a maximum of 175 years in prison, in a case that human rights organizations denounce as an attack on press freedom.
The US government claims that the Australian is not a journalist but a hacker and endangered the lives of numerous informants by publishing complete unedited documents.
On March 14, the British Supreme Court dismissed an appeal by Assange to appeal against his extradition.
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