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Julian Assange today won the first stage of a bid to take an appeal against his extradition to America to the Supreme Court - paving the way for a momentous legal clash that will decide whether he could spend the rest of his life behind bars.
Assange, 50, is wanted in America for allegedly conspiring to hack a secret Pentagon computer network to obtain hundreds of thousands of files relating to the Afghanistan and Iraq wars in charges that could land him a 175-year sentence.
In December last year, the US won a High Court challenge to overturn a ruling that Assange should not be extradited due to a real and 'oppressive' risk of suicide, after officials vowed he would not be kept in 'restrictive' conditions.
But in an attempt to scupper his extradition, Assange's lawyers argued the case raised a point in law of 'general public importance' so should be considered by the UK's most senior judges.
Today, Lord Chief Justice Lord Burnett and Lord Justice
