LONDON, Dec 19, 2023 (BSS/AFP) - A final appeal to prevent the extradition

of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to the United States will be heard in
London over two days in February, his support group said on Tuesday.

Assange, 52, is wanted on espionage charges and has been detained in the
high-security Belmarsh Prison in southeast London since April 2019.

He was arrested after spending seven years holed up in Ecuador's London
embassy to avoid extradition to Sweden where he faced accusations of sexual
assault, which were later dropped.

The US authorities want to put the Australian publisher on trial for
divulging US military secrets about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Free Assange campaign said the case will be heard before two judges in
the High Court in London on February 20 and 21.

It will review an earlier decision taken by a single judge in June which
refused Assange permission to appeal.

The appeal will determine whether Assange will have further opportunities to
argue his case before the UK's domestic courts or whether he will have
exhausted all appeals and will enter the process of extradition.

"The US is attempting to convict Julian Assange under the 1917 Espionage
Act," the Free Assange campaign founder John Rees said.

"If they get away with it, they will have succeeded in redefining journalism
as spying."

Assange is accused of publishing some 700,000 confidential documents related
to US military and diplomatic activities, starting in 2010.

He faces decades in prison if he is found guilty.

In July his wife Stella Assange appealed for clemency from the US President
Joe Biden, saying he could "end this anytime".