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In a last-ditch effort<\/strong> to avoid extradition to the United States, lawyers for jailed WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on Friday appealed to the United Kingdom’s High Court to block the transfer.<\/p>\n Assange’s brother, Gabriel Shipton, told<\/a> Reuters<\/em> that the Australian publisher’s legal team appealed his extradition, which was formally approved<\/a> by U.K. Home Secretary Priti Patel last month.<\/p>\n “We also urge the Australian government to intervene immediately in the case to end this nightmare,” Shipton said.<\/p>\n Supporters of Assange held protests ahead of his 51st birthday on Saturday, including<\/a> one in an open-top double-decker London tour bus that passed by British government buildings in Westminster on Friday. One of the demonstrators, 79-year-old Gloria Wildman, told<\/a> Agence France-Presse<\/em> that Assange has “been in prison for telling the truth.”<\/p>\n “If Julian Assange is not free, neither are we; none of us is free,” she added.<\/p>\n Myriad human rights, journalistic, and other groups have condemned Assange’s impending extradition and the U.S. government’s targeting of a journalist who exposed American war crimes. In a Thursday statement, the Australian Journalists Union said<\/a> that “the charges against Assange are an affront to journalists everywhere and a threat to press freedom.”<\/p>\n