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Supreme Court rejects Assange appeal bid

The Supreme Court has dismissed a request by Wikileaks head Julian Assange to reopen his appeal against extradition to Sweden to face questioning over sex crimes.Seven Supreme Court judges found that the reasoning of Assange's defence in making the application was "without merit", the court said in a statement on Thursday.
Written by Tom Espiner, Contributor

The Supreme Court has dismissed a request by Wikileaks head Julian Assange to reopen his appeal against extradition to Sweden to face questioning over sex crimes.

Seven Supreme Court judges found that the reasoning of Assange's defence in making the application was "without merit", the court said in a statement on Thursday. The decision paves the way for Assange's possible extradition.

"The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom has dismissed the application made by Ms Dinah Rose QC, counsel for Mr Julian Assange, seeking to re-open their appeal," said the court.

Rose applied for the court to set aside a judgement it made in May concerning Assange's extradition on the grounds that Rose had not been given a fair chance to address a law which formed the basis for the judges' May decision — the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties. The Supreme Court disagreed, and said on Thursday that Rose had been given an opportunity to address the law during the appeal.

Assange's defence team was given a stay of 14 days from Thursday before the extradition order comes into effect. Assange's solicitor Gareth Peirce had not responded to a request for comment at the time of writing about whether Assange intended to apply, or had applied, for an appeal to the European Court of Human Rights, a move which would further stay his extradition.

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