20 December 2023 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Julian Assange’s Final Appeal to be held in UK High Court 20 & 21 February 2024 The UK High Court has confirmed that a public hearing will take place on 20 and 21 February 2024. The two-day hearing may be the final chance for Julian Assange to prevent his extradition to the United States. If extradited, Julian faces a sentence of 175 years for exposing war crimes committed by the United States in the Afghan and Iraq wars.    The Australian publisher and WikiLeaks founder has been confined in London’s high-security Belmarsh Prison since he was arrested on a US extradition request on 11 April 2019 and forcibly removed from the Ecuadorian UK Embassy where Julian had sought asylum for 7 years. This will be his 13th Christmas in arbitrary detention and the fifth in Belmarsh Prison.   The upcoming public hearing will be held before a panel of two judges who will review an earlier UK High Court decision taken by a single judge on 6 June 2023 which refused Julian permission to appeal. It will determine whether Julian will have further opportunities to argue his case before the UK courts, or whether he will be extradited to the United States to face charges under the 1917 US Espionage Act.   Julian’s family have been joined by millions of supporters globally campaigning relentlessly for the US to drop the prosecution and release him.   Said Gabriel Shipton, brother of Julian Assange: “This hearing signals a crucial stage in Julian’s battle for justice and is the end of the line in the UK courts. This Christmas will be Julian’s 5th in a UK prison. He has gone through years of uncertainty, his mental and physical health getting worse and worse. He should be able to come home to Australia with his children and get the support he needs. I urge the Prime Minister to pull out all the stops in his efforts to end Julian’s suffering.  Bring Julian home.”   Stella Assange, Julian’s wife who he married while in prison said, “The last four and a half years have taken the most considerable toll on Julian and his family, including our two young sons. His mental health and physical state have deteriorated significantly. With the myriad of evidence that has come to light since the original hearing in 2019, such as the violation of legal privilege and reports that senior US officials were involved in formulating assassination plots against my husband, there is no denying that a fair trial, let alone Julian’s safety on US soil, is an impossibility were he to be extradited. The persecution of this innocent journalist and publisher must end.”   Immediately after the court date was announced, protestors responded by calling for a mass protest at the Court on the days of the hearing at 8:30am. They welcome all those who support press freedom to join them in London and around the world.   Julian's campaign for freedom is supported by Amnesty International, the National Union of Journalists, Reporters Without Borders and civil rights, press freedom and media organisations around the world, including the other five media outlets who simultaneously published the shocking ‘Collateral Murder’ video that changed the course of the US-led coalition invasion of Iraq in 2003. A war that is estimated to have cost the lives of more than 1.1 million people, most of whom were innocent civilians including women and children, with millions more injured and displaced,   More than 70 Australian Federal politicians have called on the US to drop the prosecution. In the United States, the number of Congressional representatives calling for the case to be dropped grows steadily; currently H. Res 934 sponsored by Paul Gosar is gathering signatures from all sides of the House in Washington DC. Media contact   Jodie Harrison    +61 425 754 370    [email protected] assangecampaign.org.au