US Court Refuses to Force Govt to Unseal WikiLeaks Founder's Case - Filing

"Before the Court is an application filed by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press (applicant or the Committee) seeking an order unsealing judicial records related to what the Committee believes is a criminal prosecution of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange (Assange). The Committee's application will be denied without prejudice", an opinion by US District Judge Leonie Brinkema read.

The judge noted that the US authorities had not ever confirmed they had brought any charges against Assange.

The opinion also emphasized that the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press had not "cited any authority supporting the notion that the public has a right to require the Government to confirm or deny that it has charged someone".

Ecuador Can't Guarantee UK Won't Extradite Assange, Prosecutor General Says

13 December 2018, 02:08 GMT

In November, WikiLeaks and a number of US media outlets published what they claimed was court filing in an unrelated case including some sealed charges, which used Assange's name in an "apparent cut-and-paste error".

The outlets suggested that the existence of these files meant existing charges brought against Assange by the US authorities.

Assange has been living in the Ecuadorian embassy in the United States since 2012.

The whistleblower has been fearing he might be extradited to the United States if he leaves the facility, since WikiLeaks has published thousands of classified document allegedly leaked from US government agencies.