U.S. had proposed the UK court for the extradition of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on spying charges. But a British judge rejected it saying, that the WikiLeaks founder would be at severe risk of suicide if sent to the U.S. to await trial in a high-security prison.
The decision marks a major setback in Washington’s pursuit of Assange for publishing secret documents relating to the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
A lawyer for the U.S. government said it would appeal, setting the stage for another hearing in the coming months at the High Court in London. A bail application is scheduled to be heard Wednesday.
Delivering her ruling Monday after months of sporadic hearings because of the coronavirus pandemic, District Judge Vanessa Baraitser said Assange has already toyed with suicide and the prospect of detention in isolation in the U.S. would likely result in a suicide attempt.
The judge said the harsh conditions under which he would likely be held in the U.S. prison system would exacerbate that risk. The court heard evidence from doctors who diagnosed Assange with depression and autism.
Under British extradition law, as well as European human-rights law that the U.K. is party to, a judge can block extradition on health grounds if it would result in unjust or oppressive treatment.
“I find that the mental condition of Assange is such that it would be oppressive to extradite him” to the U.S., Judge Baraitser said in a 132-page ruling.
“The overall impression is of a depressed and sometimes despairing man who is genuinely fearful about his future,” she said, rejecting the U.S. extradition request.
The judge did, however, dismiss multiple other arguments against extradition, including the defense’s assertion that Assange’s prosecution was politically motivated and violated his rights to free expression.
A spokesman for the U.S. Department of Justice said that while it was disappointed in the court’s decision, the U.S. had prevailed on every point of law raised. “We will continue to seek Assange’s extradition to the United States,” he said.
Assange, a 49-year-old Australian who appeared in court in person Monday, is wanted in the U.S. on 18 charges of breaking espionage laws and conspiring to hack a military computer. The alleged offenses relate to the publication in 2010 and 2011 by WikiLeaks of a huge trove of classified material that painted a bleak picture of the American campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan and their aftermath.
Assange has repeatedly defended his work and the wider WikiLeaks project as public-interest journalism that exposed wrongdoing by the U.S. and other governments. The high-profile case has ignited debate over the scope of press freedom in the internet age, and sparked concern that conventional media outlets and reporters could similarly be pursued for publishing government secrets.
