Delay to Julian Assange’s appeal bid decision ‘utterly bizarre’, says his wife

Julian Assange’s wife has called judges’ decisions to delay their ruling over whether the WikiLeaks founder can bring a final UK appeal against extradition as “utterly bizarre” with the court “tying itself in knots”.

The Australian faces prosecution in the US over an alleged conspiracy to obtain and disclose national defence information following the publication of hundreds of thousands of leaked documents relating to the Afghanistan and Iraq wars.

During a two-day hearing in February, lawyers for the 52-year-old asked for the go-ahead to bring an appeal against his extradition.

In a judgment on Tuesday, Dame Victoria Sharp and Mr Justice Johnson dismissed most of Assange’s legal arguments but said unless assurances were given by the US, he would be able to bring an appeal on three grounds.

The judges said the US authorities had three weeks to give those assurances, with a final hearing potentially taking place in late May.

Following the ruling, Assange’s wife Stella Assange described the judgment delaying the final decision over the appeal bid as “astounding”.

Ms Assange later said: “I find the judgment utterly bizarre. As I said before, my impression is that the court is tying itself in knots.”

Speaking at a press conference, Ms Assange said the legal fight was “an unprecedented case” and that courts in the UK should have “thrown out” the case.