The extradition to the US of Julian Assange, imprisoned in the maximum security prison of Belmarsh in London, could be "dangerously close" according to Wikileaks, after a new appeal presented to the English High Court was rejected in order to stop the process for the transfer of the Australian activist.

Single judge Jonathan Swift, the same one who last year rejected the appeal filed by NGOs against the conservative government's controversial plan to transfer asylum seekers to Rwanda, reaffirmed the validity of the extradition order issued a year ago by the then Interior Minister, Priti Patel.

The line chosen by Assange's lawyers is to question the order issued by the British government as it would violate the treaty with the US according to which extradition cannot be granted for political crimes.