A London court issues an extradition order for Julian Assange to the United States.

A British judge on Wednesday ordered the extradition of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to the United States, where he will face trial for espionage for leaking classified US documents that could carry a sentence of up to 175 years.

The final decision will be made by the British Home Secretary, Priti Patel, to whom the judge has sent his consent and which will finally resolve the Assange case. For his part, the journalist’s defense has until May 18 to submit the allegations.

The court order comes after the UK’s Supreme Court last month denied Assange the opportunity to challenge a lower court’s decision that he could be extradited.

The United States has requested the extradition of the WikiLeaks founder to British authorities to stand trial on 17 counts of espionage and one count of computer misuse, accusing him of helping US Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning steal classified documents.

BREAKING: A UK judge has ordered Julian Assange to be extradited to the US where he will face a 175-year sentence for publishing it

The decision will now pass to British Home Secretary Priti Patel – the defense has until May 18 to submit applications https://t.co/m1bX8STSr8 pic.twitter.com/BqEZH0O49O

– wikileaks April 20 2022

For its part, the defense claimed that Assange was working as a journalist and that he had the right to freedom of expression, which protects the publication of crimes committed by the US military in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Following a US request for extradition, Assange has been deprived of his liberty since 2012. That year he took refuge in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London, where he was granted political asylum and Ecuadorean citizenship.

However, his asylum and citizenship were withdrawn in 2019 by the then Ecuadorean president, Lenin Moreno, who was promptly arrested by the British authorities. He has since been imprisoned at Belmarsh Maximum Security Prison, south London.