“No one, neither US citizens nor foreign citizens, are entitled to rely on the First Amendment in relation to publication of illegally obtained national defence information giving the names of innocent sources, to their grave and imminent risk of harm,” Lewis said.
In March, the High Court provisionally gave Assange permission to appeal on three grounds. But it gave the US the opportunity to provide satisfactory assurances that it would not seek the death penalty and would allow him to seek to rely on a First Amendment right to free speech in a trial.
In a short ruling, two senior judges said the US submissions were not sufficient and said they would allow the appeal to go ahead.
US authorities want to put Assange on trial on 18 charges, nearly all under the Espionage Act, for publishing military documents on the war in Afghanistan and Iraq, which prosecutors say were reckless, damaged national security, and endangered the lives of agents.
The US government has described the leaks as “one of the largest compromises of classified information in the history of the United States”.
The Australian was first taken to Belmarsh high-security prison five years ago after he was removed from the Ecuadorian embassy in London where he had stayed for seven years while trying to avoid extradition to Sweden over sex crime allegations that were later dropped.
Assange’s lawyers say he could face up to 175 years in prison if convicted, though American authorities have said any sentence would likely be much shorter.
His many global supporters call the prosecution a travesty, an assault on journalism and free speech, and revenge for causing embarrassment. Calls for the case to be dropped have come from human rights groups, media bodies and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, along with other political leaders.
US President Joe Biden said last month that he was considering a request from Australia to drop the case and let Assange return to his home country.
Discussion about this post