- Wikileaks founder Julian Assange can be extradited to the US, a UK court ruled on Friday.
- Assange is currently in a UK prison, and a court previously ruled he could not be sent to the US.
Wikileaks founder Julian Assange can be extradited to the US where he faces charges including hacking charges, a London court ruled on Friday.
A UK court had ruled earlier this year that Assange could not be extradited, saying that he was at risk of suicide and self harm due to his mental state while in a UK prison.
The US accuses Assange of conspiring to hack government computers and breaching the Espionage Act after WikiLeaks published a trove of confidential military and diplomatic documents in 2010.
He faces 18 charges in the US.
Assange lived for years in Ecuador's embassy in London, but Ecuador withdrew its asylum protections and he was forcibly removed and arrested in April 2019.
The US then requested to extradite him.
He has been in prison in the UK since he was arrested, after he was convicted of breaching bail conditions in 2012.
Assange and his team have fought his extradition to the US.
UK Home Secretary Priti Patel will now decide if Assange will be extradited.
The summary of the decision said that the US assured the UK that Assange "will receive appropriate clinical and psychological treatment as recommended by a qualified treating clinician at the prison where he is held" if he was sent to the US.
A Yahoo News investigation found that the CIA suggested plans to kidnap or assassinate Assange to senior Trump officials in the Trump administration, though plans were ultimately not adopted.
Assange's fiancé said in response to Friday's ruling: "How can it be fair, how can it be right, how can it be possible, to extradite Julian to the very country which plotted to kill him?"
Human rights group Amnesty International criticized the ruling on Friday.
The group has repeatedly spoken out against the possibility of Assange being extradited to the US, previously saying "The US government's unrelenting pursuit of Julian Assange for having published disclosed documents that included possible war crimes committed by the US military is nothing short of a full-scale assault on the right to freedom of expression."
This is a developing story, check back for updates.