A London appeals court is set to hear in February WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s appeal against his extradition to the US, where he faces criminal charges of “espionage” over the disclosure of a huge volume of confidential and classified documents, his supporters said on Tuesday.

The hearing, set for February 20 and 21, may be “the last chance” Julian Assange has “to prevent his extradition to the United States,” they said in a statement.

A two-judge appeals court will review the decision made by a single-judge court on June 6, barring him from appealing, his supporters said.

The appeal hearing in February will determine whether Julian Assange will have further “opportunities” to defend his case in British justice or if he has “exhausted” his remedies, he no longer has “another appeal” in the UK court system and therefore the “extradition process” will be initiated, they explained.

A possible appeal to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) “remains possible”, however, his supporters noted.

The 52-year-old is being prosecuted in the US for the disclosure since 2010 of more than 700,000 confidential and classified documents about US military and diplomatic activities, especially in Iraq and Afghanistan.

If convicted, he faces decades in prison.

After being arrested by British police in April 2019 after seven years locked up in the Ecuadorian embassy in London to avoid extradition to Sweden over sexual assault charges that have since been dropped, he has been held for the past four years at Belmars maximum security prison in south-east London.

The Australian’s supporters consider him a martyr of press freedom.

The British government accepted his extradition in June 2022, but Julian Assange’s lawyers appealed.