Julian Assange, the controversial founder of WikiLeaks, must be extradited to Sweden to face further questioning over allegations of sex crimes,a British court ruled on Thursday, throwing into doubt the future of the website. Mr Assange’s supporters fear extradition to Sweden could put him one step closer to US custody, after embarrassing Washington with the whistle blowing site’s release of thousands of diplomatic cables. The move is likely to put further strain on WikiLeaks, which is already subject to legal scrutiny from US prosecutors and struggling to raise funds. Mr Assange has seven days to appeal the ruling.
Mr Assange has always denied the allegations by two Swedish women, implying that they were the result of an international conspiracy resulting from WikiLeaks’ release of US government secrets. The judge did not accept Mr Assange’s legal team’s argument that the Swedish prosecutor’s arrest warrant demanding his extradition was invalid. He said that the defence’s attacks had been personal in nature. He also denied that there was any risk that Mr Assange could be detained in Guantánamo Bay prison as a result of the extradition. Mr Assange’s lawyers had claimed during the extradition hearing at Belmarsh magistrates’ court earlier this month that Mr Assange was the victim of a “malicious” feminist Swedish prosecutor and would be denied a fair trial.
They also told Belmarsh magistrates’ court that their client could face being tried “behind closed doors” if he is extradited to Sweden, as rape trials there normally exclude the press and public. Clare Montgomery QC, representing Swedish prosecutors, told the court during the hearing that if Mr Assange went to Sweden he would not be extradited to the US, something she claimed that his lawyers now seemed to accept given their “absence of sound bites about Guantánamo Bay”.
Celebrity supporters including Jemima Khan, the socialite and author, looked on from the gallery as Mr Assange learnt of his fate. Mr Assange has used a Facebook application, Fundrazr, to raise £22,000 for his defence fund, while WikiLeaks itself has taken to selling T-shirts and mugs bearing his image and “Free Assange” slogans to raise money. Several payment companies, including Visa, MasterCard and PayPal, stopped processing payments to WikiLeaks several weeks ago, putting the organisation’s finances in a precarious position. Three books published recently about WikiLeaks, including one by a disgruntled formerassociate of Mr Assange, portray the site’s founder as a divisive figure, singleminded in his mission toend government secrecy.
Daniel Domscheit-Berg, a former WikiLeaks employee who fell out with Mr Assange and is launching his own rival site, OpenLeaks, described his former associate as “so paranoid, so power hungry, so megalomaniac”.