Julian Assange has been handed a reprieve in his fight against extradition to the US after two judges ruled that the WikiLeaks founder could take his case to an appeal hearing but only if the UK and US are unable to provide the court with suitable assurances.

The president of the king’s bench division, Victoria Sharp, and Mr Justice Johnson said Assange had reasonable prospects for success on three of the nine grounds argued, but adjourned the leave to appeal application to give the respondents the opportunity to provide reassurance on the relevant matters, the Guardian reported. 

In a written judgment, handed down on Tuesday morning, Sharp said: “Before making a final decision on the application for leave to appeal, we will allow the respondent to give assurances.

“If assurances are not given then we will grant leave to appeal without a further hearing."
In 2010, Assange published a series of damning leaks provided by US Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning, including nearly 750,000 classified military and diplomatic documents related to the Iraq and Afghanistan wars that exposed the US military's war crimes in these countries.