WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 12th August, 2021) US State Department spokesperson Ned price referred a reporter's questions concerning WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and the US position on it to the Department of Justice (DOJ).
"This is the matter for the Department of Justice. It's a matter that the Department of Justice is pursuing," Price said.
When asked whether the State Department's position on Assange's extradition has changed, Price said, "the Department of Justice is pursuing this. I will leave it to them to pursue and to characterize the United States Government's position on this."
The High Court in London ruled on Monday that it would hear the US government's appeal against the decision of a UK district court not to extradite Assange in late October.
The court allowed the US to challenge the previous verdict in early July. During the preliminary appeal hearing held on Wednesday, civic leaders, activists, and politicians, including former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, gathered outside the London Palace of Justice in support of the journalist.
The appeal will be heard on October 27-28, the judge said.
Back in January, UK district judge Vanessa Baraitser ruled against extraditing Assange to the United States, citing health reasons and the risk of suicide in the US prison system. The judge, however, decided that he must wait in prison for the outcome of a US appeal hearing.
The whistleblower, arrested in London on April 11, 2019, for jumping bail in 2012, faces up to 175 years in solitary confinement on espionage charges for leaking classified military documents on US war crimes in Afghanistan and Iraq.
