WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange wins right to take US extradition case to UK Supreme Court

The United Kingdom’s High Court has ruled that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange can take his legal fight against extradition to the United States to the Supreme Court.

While judges on Monday refused him permission for a direct appeal to the Supreme Court on their decision, they said his case raised an issue of legal importance that he could ask the UK’s top court to rule on.

The Supreme Court will have to decide whether it should hear his challenge and the ruling will stall any extradition from the UK for now.

In December, the High Court overturned a lower court’s ruling that said Assange should not be extradited because his fragile mental health meant he would be at risk of suicide.

US authorities want Australian-born Assange, 50, currently in jail in London as he awaits a ruling on his extradition, to face trial on 18 counts relating to WikiLeaks’s release of vast troves of confidential US military records and diplomatic cables which they said had put lives in danger.