Between 200 and 300 people demonstrated in London on Tuesday (17), demanding the British government’s refusal to extradite WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who is wanted in the US due to the massive leak of classified documents.

After a lengthy legal battle, the British court formally authorized the surrender of the 50-year-old Australian to an American court on 20 April, but the extradition order is subject to the signature of British Home Secretary Priti Patel and is still subject to appeal.

Assange’s defense presented its arguments Tuesday for denying extradition, his wife Stella Assange tweeted.

“The political issue, the political persecution of Julian Assange, is now officially in Priti Patel’s hands,” WikiLeaks Editor-in-Chief Kristinn Hrafnsson said.

Hrafnsson noted that Assange, who had been “deprived of his liberty for a decade”, “is strengthened by the fact that the public and politicians around the world are united in this cause” and that “more and more people understand the importance of this case”. .

More than 20 human rights and press freedom organizations support the activists.

According to 25-year-old actor Amaru Narvaez-Reyes, who was on the show, Assange’s extradition “would strike fear into the hearts of many journalists and likely prevent too much information from reaching the public”.

As of 2010, the WikiLeaks founder is requested by American Justice to release more than 700,000 classified documents, particularly on US military and diplomatic activities in Iraq and Afghanistan. He is sentenced to 175 years in prison.

Assange was detained in 2019 after spending more than seven years as a refugee at the Ecuadorian embassy in London.