The US said it would appeal the decision Monday, asking for Assange to be held in custody while that trial was underway.
Judge Vanessa Baraitser said in her ruling on Wednesday that “there are substantial grounds to believe that if Mr. Assange is released today, he will not surrender to court and undergo the appeal process.”
The 49-year-old Australian remains in London Belmarsh prison, where he already served a 50-week sentence in 2012 for breaking bail conditions when he entered Ecuador’s embassy in London to avoid extradition to Sweden.
Assange is facing an 18-count US federal indictment for his role in publishing secret military and diplomatic cables.
In April 2019, the US charged him with “conspiracy to commit computer hacking,” an indictment with a maximum sentence of five years. In May 2019, the federal government charged Assange with an additional 17 counts under the Espionage Act for his role in publishing classified military and diplomatic messages.
Each of these counts carries a possible sentence of 10 years, meaning Assange could be sentenced to 175 years in prison.
The US government alleges that Assange actively sought classified information from former Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning, who obtained thousands of pages of classified material and supplied Assange with State Department diplomatic cables, reports of significant activities related to the Iraq War and information related to Guantanamo Bay detainees.
Assange’s lawyers and supporters have long argued that the extradition warrant and charges against him are politically motivated and that, if carried out, would have a chilling effect on press freedoms in both the US and the UK.