"What happened in court today is precisely what we wanted to happen," Stella Moris, Assange's fiancée, said during a press conference outside the Royal Courts in central London following the decision. "Make no mistake, we won today in court."

"But let's not forget that every time we win, as long as this case isn't dropped, as long as Julian isn't freed, Julian continues to suffer," Moris added. "He is suffering profoundly, day after day, week after week, year after year. Julian has to be freed, and we hope that this will soon end."

Assange has been imprisoned at a high-security London jail since 2019, under conditions that experts and rights groups have denounced as torturous and a violation of international law.

For years, Assange and his legal team have been fighting attempts by the U.S. to extradite him to face charges under the Espionage Act. Because the charges stem from a common journalistic practice—the publication of classified information—advocacy groups have warned that the U.S. prosecution of Assange poses a severe threat to press freedoms worldwide.

"Journalism is not a crime," British Labour MP Jeremy Corbyn, founder of the Peace and Justice Project, said Monday. "Wikileaks exposed crimes of U.S. empire in Afghanistan, Iraq, and beyond. The perpetrators of these crimes walk free, often still prominent public figures in the U.S., U.K., and elsewhere. They should be held accountable for the lives they destroyed and the futures they stole."