Last week the UK Supreme Court heard Julian Assange's final appeal in his battle to overcome extradition to Sweden where he faces criminal sexual assault charges.
The various Assange cases involve some interesting issues, so we thought that in the lead up to the UK Supreme Court decision on Assange's final appeal being released we would fill you in on what's been happening.
Assange resides in England and has refused to travel back to Sweden, on the basis that he probably won't get a fair investigation. So the Swedes issued a European Arrest Warrant.
Assange has sought to have the Arrest Warrant (and therefore the extradition order) declared invalid saying that it breaches his human rights. So far, the English Courts have found for the Swedes and ordered Assange to comply with the extradition orders.
The Supreme Court said that these arguments raise issues of great public importance, and we agree. The effect of a finding in favour of Assange would be to make it almost impossible for European countries to extradite anyone from the UK. This is because most European countries issue warrants through their prosecution offices rather than through the courts like in England. If Assange loses, he can lodge an appeal in the European Court of Human Rights, but it is likely that he would be extradited in the mean time anyway. We're predicting another loss for Assange.
The decision from a full bench of seven Supreme Court Judges is expected to be released in the next couple of weeks, and in a very interesting development will be tweeted when released (even the UK Supreme Court is embracing social media! @UKSupremeCourt).
We will keep you updated, especially on the tweeting developments.
We do not disclaim anything about this article. We're quite proud of it really.