Epress.am News from Armenia
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange will find out Wednesday whether he will be extradited to Sweden to face questioning on sexual misconduct allegations, CNN reports.
UK appeals court judges Lord Justice Thomas and Justice Ouseley will give their decision at 5:45 am ET, according to a statement released over the weekend.
If the court rules in his favor, Assange can expect to go free after living for months under strict bail conditions, including house arrest.
A “Free Assange” rally is planned for Wednesday outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London.
Assange, an Australian, decided to fight the case at London’s High Court after a judge at Belmarsh Magistrates’ Court ruled in February that the WikiLeaks head should be extradited.
Although Assange has not been charged with a crime, Swedish prosecutors want to question him in connection with sexual misconduct allegations related to separate incidents in August 2010.
Assange denies the accusations, saying they are an attempt to smear him, and says it would be unfair to send him to a country where the language and legal system are alien to him. His attorneys have fought his extradition on procedural and human-rights grounds.
Assange’s lawyers have suggested that Sweden would hand him over to the United States if Britain extradites him. The prosecutor representing Sweden has dismissed that claim.
The extradition case is not linked to his work as founder and editor-in-chief of WikiLeaks, which has put him on the wrong side of the US authorities.