US will not seek death penalty for Assange if extradited, High Court told

Wikileaks editor in chief Kristinn Hrafnsson (left) and Stella Assange, the wife of Julian Assange, at the Royal Courts of Justice in London (Lucy North/PA)

Julian Assange’s lawyers have accepted an assurance that the United States will not seek the death penalty if the WikiLeaks founder is extradited and convicted, the High Court has heard.

Assange faces prosecution in the US over an alleged conspiracy to obtain and disclose national defence information following the publication of hundreds of thousands of leaked documents relating to the Afghanistan and Iraq wars.