UK judge says WikiLeaks founder should not be extradited to face espionage charges, because he is at risk of suicide.

People celebrate after a British judge ruled that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange should not be extradited to the United States, outside the Old Bailey, the Central Criminal Court, in London, Britain, January 4, 2021 [Henry Nicholls/Reuters]

4 Jan 2021

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Updated: 

8 minutes ago

A British judge has ruled Julian Assange should not be extradited to the US to face espionage charges, saying that such a move would be “oppressive” because of the WikiLeaks founder’s mental health.

District Judge Vanessa Baraitser delivered the decision against the US request on Monday, at the Old Bailey court in London.

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She said Assange was “a depressed and sometimes despairing man” who had the “intellect and determination” to circumvent any suicide prevention measures taken by prison authorities.

If detained in the US, Assange “faces the bleak prospect of severely restrictive detention conditions designed to remove physical contact and reduce social interaction and contact with the outside world to a bare minimum”, she said.

“He faces these prospects as someone with a diagnosis of clinical depression and persistent thoughts of suicide.

“I am satisfied that the risk that Mr Assange will commit suicide is a substantial one.”

In the run-up to Monday’s decision, Assange had enjoyed a swell of support from press freedom advocates, who have been calling on US President Donald Trump to pardon him.

After the ruling, Assange’s supporters who had gathered since the early morning to rally outside the court celebrated, cheering and shouting “Free Assange!”

While rights groups and journalists globally welcomed the decision, they issued some caution.

“I am relieved the judge just ruled against extradition, however I am very unhappy about how she stuck to all the major arguments put forward by the US to characterise Assange’s work as going beyond free speech and journalism,” investigative journalist Stefania Maurizi told Al Jazeera following the ruling.

Maurizi works for the Italian daily Il Fatto Quotidiano and has worked on all of WikiLeaks’s secret documents, included the 2010 documents for which Assange has been charged.

“I am also very concerned that Assange will remain in prison, because it’s very likely the US will appeal: he is at serious risk physically and mentally.”

The US-based Freedom of the Press Foundation tweeted: “The extradition request was not decided on press freedom grounds; rather, the judge essentially ruled the US prison system was too repressive to extradite. However, the result will protect journalists everywhere.”

Julian Assange supporters celebrate after a ruling that he cannot be extradited to the United States, outside the Old Bailey in London, Monday, January 4, 2021 [Frank Augstein/AP]

What next?

For now, 49-year-old Assange, who appeared in court, is expected to remain in jail in the UK.

He has been held at the maximum security Belmarsh prison in southeast London, where fears are growing for his physical and mental health, since April 2019.

The ruling is likely to be appealed by the US government, which is attempting to prosecute Assange.

The case could then go to the United Kingdom’s Supreme Court, further delaying a final outcome.

US prosecutors have indicted 49-year-old Australian-born Assange on 17 espionage charges and one charge of computer misuse. The charges carry a maximum sentence of 175 years in prison.

Assange’s lawyers argue that he was acting as a journalist and is entitled to First Amendment protections of freedom of speech for publishing leaked documents that exposed US military wrongdoing in Iraq and Afghanistan.

They say that the protracted case was politically motivated.

Assange and WikiLeaks shot to fame in April 2010, after the website released a 39-minute video of a US military Apache helicopter firing over and killing more than a dozen Iraqis, including two Reuters journalists.

Al Jazeera’s Neave Barker, reporting from outside the Old Bailey, said Monday’s decision would come “as a blow” to the prosecution.

“We assume now that the process of appeal will begin, taking this case onwards to the High Court and possibly even the Supreme Court,” he said.

“We are talking potentially about many many more months, or many more years, of legal wrangling to go when it comes to deciding Julian Assange’s future.”

“He is seen very much as a thorn in the side to many governments, not just the US government, and as a man who has jeopardised state secrets, undermined state security and the safety of undercover agents working in very difficult situations in challenging parts of the world.”

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/1/4/julian-assange-extradition-2