Politics
Assange Extradition to USA Blocked Over ‘Suicide Risk’… Mexico to Grant Assange Asylum…
WIKILEAKS founder Julian Assange cannot be extradited to the US to face spy charges due to a suicide risk, a court ruled today.
Old Bailey District Judge Vanessa Baraitser denied the request to put the Australian on trial for espionage and hacking government computers.
Extradition to the US would be ‘oppressive’ to Assange’s mental health, the judge said.
Assange, 49, could be released this week following the long-running legal battle, with a bail application hearing to be held on Wednesday.
He wiped his brow after this morning’s decision was announced, while his fiancee, Stella Moris, with whom he has two young sons, wept.
She was embraced by Kristinn Hrafnsson, WikiLeaks editor-in-chief, who sat next to her in court.
ASSANGE AVOIDS EXTRADITION
The US government is expected to appeal today’s decision.
Speaking outside the Old Bailey, Ms Moris said ‘today’s victory is a first step towards justice”.
But she said they were ‘extremely concerned’ that US authorities wanted to ‘make him disappear in the deepest, darkest hole in the US prison system’.
She urged President Donald Trump to “tear down these prison walls” and “free Julian”.
Assange was accused of a plot to hack computers and a conspiracy to obtain and disclose national defence information.
He is wanted for allegedly conspiring with army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning after WikiLeaks published hundreds of thousands of leaked documents in 2010 and 2011.
The 500,000 secret files detailed aspects of military campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq and cables about Guantanamo Bay.
A US grand jury indicted him on 18 charges last year, including 17 under the Espionage Act.
If convicted, he would have been held in isolation at the maximum-security Supermax jail in Colorado, described as ‘a ‘fate worse than death’ by a former warden.
Assange has been held in South East London’s Belmarsh prison for the past 19 months as he fought extradition to the US.
He sat in a blue suit with crossed legs, clasped his hands and fiddled with his ring as today’s ruling was announced.
Giving her reasons, the judge said extradition should be barred ‘if it is unjust or oppressive to due to a person’s health’.