Protest against Julian Assange's US extradition

LONDON: Hundreds of people gathered in front of the British Home Office to protest against the extradition of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to the US, denouncing it as "politically motivated" and a "grave threat to freedom of press". The protestors assembled on Tuesday in London, Xinhua news agency reported.

After Assange waged several rounds of appeal battle spanning months, Britain's Westminster Magistrate's Court issued a formal order in April to extradite him to the US to face espionage charges.

The case is now at the hands of British Home Secretary Priti Patel, who will decide whether to approve the extradition.

The Wikileaks founder's legal team can make submissions before Wednesday to Patel explaining why the former shouldn't be extradited.

On Tuesday, Assange's wife Stella Assange said on Twitter that a representation had been filed to the Home Secretary to block his extradition to the US.

Assange, 50, is wanted in the US 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 an Apache helicopter video footage documenting the US military gunning down Reuters journalists and children in Baghdad's streets in 2007.

"It's very clear that the case is politically motivated because the American authorities are using the espionage act to attempt extradition. And the espionage act has been historically used to suppress American dissidents," Lano Nika, a protester, told Xinhua.

"This case is critical not only for media freedom, but also for institution accountability and personal freedoms," she added. (IANS)

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