Britain’s Supreme Court on Thursday rejected an application by WikiLeaks frontman Julian Assange to reopen his appeal against extradition to Sweden over alleged sex crimes.
The decision means the 40-year-old Australian has exhausted all his legal options in Britain, although he could still take his case to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.
Seven British Supreme Court justices unanimously dismissed the application by Assange’s lawyers as being “without merit,” Britain’s highest court said in a statement.
Photo: AFP
The court said extradition -proceedings against the former computer hacker could not begin for two weeks.
“The Court has ordered that ... the required period for extradition shall not commence until the 14th day after today,” it said.
Assange’s lawyers now have until June 28 to apply to the Strasbourg court to consider his case on the basis that he has not had a fair hearing from the British courts.
It is then up to the European court to decide whether or not to postpone extradition while another hearing goes ahead.
The court has the power to issue a direction to the British -government that he should not be surrendered to Sweden if it decides to consider his claim.
If it decides not to use this power, British authorities must send Assange to Sweden within 10 days.
Two weeks ago, the British Supreme Court rejected Assange’s appeal against extradition to Sweden, where prosecutors want to question him about claims of rape and sexual assault made by two female WikiLeaks volunteers.
The judges rejected Assange’s argument that the Swedish prosecutor who issued the European arrest warrant for him was not qualified to do so.
However, in a surprise move, Assange’s lawyers lodged an application to reopen the case, on the grounds that the British Supreme Court’s decision was based on a legal point that had not been argued in court.
Assange, whose Web site has published thousands of leaked US diplomatic cables that embarrassed governments, says the sex in Sweden was consensual and that the allegations against him are politically motivated.
He has said he feared his extradition would eventually lead to his transfer to the US, where US soldier Bradley Manning is facing a trial over accusations that he handed documents to WikiLeaks.
The Swedish lawyer for Assange’s accusers said last month he was confident he would be extradited there eventually.
Claes Borgstroem said that although Assange was at present wanted for questioning over the allegations of rape and sexual assault, he expected an indictment perhaps within a month of him arriving in Sweden.
Since his arrest in London in December 2010, Assange has lived under tight restrictions on his movements, including wearing an ankle tag and reporting daily to police.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not