District Judge Riddle has just ordered Julian Assange’s extradition to Sweden, according to reporters’ tweets from court, and Sky News. I’ve not yet had sight of the ruling itself yet of course.

So where does he go from here? To be flippant, the practical answer is probably, back to Suffolk. The judge could remand him into custody pending extradition – but I doubt that, especially as there’s likely to be an appeal.

The appeal will be to the High Court under section 26 of the Extradition Act 2003, and Julian Assange’s team will need to given notice of appeal within 7 days. No doubt his team will begin working on their grounds as soon as they get out of court, and they’ll have the difficult immediate task of giving instant advice on his chances.

The appeal can be on a question of law, or of fact: in other words, Julian Assange can raise legal arguments that the judge got the law wrong, or he can simply say the judge made a factual mistake – about why he ended up not being interviewed further in Sweden for instance. So it can be a wide-ranging appeal.

2011-02-24T14:49:30+00:00Tags: , , |