Earlier this week, the High Court ruled that Julian Assange could appeal his extradition to the US.

In this last episode of the long-running battle that the WikiLeaks founder has been fighting against the 2022 extradition decision made by then Home Secretary Priti Patel, the judges gave him until tomorrow to submit a full case outline.

In early April, the High Court had asked the US and the Secretary of State to give several assurances, namely that: Mr Assange could rely on the First Amendment to the US Constitution, which protects free speech; he would not be prejudiced at trial (including sentence) because of his nationality; he would be afforded the same First Amendment protections as a US citizen; and the death penalty would not be imposed.

The US provided assurances in mid-April. Mr Assange’s legal team accepted the one in relation to the death penalty but argued that the rest had not satisfied the court’s request, including the assurance in relation to “the ability to raise and seek to rely upon at trial” First Amendment protections. On Monday, the High Court ruled that Mr Assange had ground to appeal his extradition on that basis.

Nick Vamos was quoted in the New York Times, The Boston Globe and The State, commenting on this latest development:

“The prolonged nature of the case is not unheard-of, in part because of Britain’s extradition rules, which allow for appeals on a variety of issues. The courts will entertain lots of different kinds of arguments about fairness and prison conditions and human rights and political motivations and all of those things,” he said, adding that, ultimately, this may have allowed Mr Assange to “buy time” for a political solution.