LONDON (AP) – A British judge on Monday rejected the United States’ request to extradite WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to face espionage charges, saying he would likely commit suicide if held under harsh US prison conditions.
District Judge Vanessa Baraitser ruled that extradition would be “oppressive” because of Assange’s mental health.
She said Assange was “a depressed and sometimes desperate man” who had the “intellect and determination” to circumvent all suicide prevention measures by the prison authorities.
The US government said it would appeal the decision. Assange’s lawyers are planning to request his release from a London prison where he has been held for more than a year and a half.
US prosecutors have indicted Assange on 17 espionage charges and one computer abuse charge over the publication of leaked military and diplomatic documents on Wikileaks a decade ago. The indictment carries a maximum prison sentence of 175 years.
Lawyers for the 49-year-old Australian claim that he acted as a journalist and is entitled to First Amendment protection of freedom of expression for publishing leaked documents exposing US military misconduct in Iraq and Afghanistan.
However, the judge said Assange’s actions, if proven, “amount to violations in this jurisdiction that would not be protected by his right to freedom of expression.”
But she said Assange was suffering from moderate to severe clinical depression that would be exacerbated by the isolation he was likely to face in US prison.
The defense argued at a three-week hearing in the fall that extradition poses a threat to Assange’s human rights because he runs the risk of incurring “extremely disproportionate punishment” and detention under “draconian and inhumane conditions” affecting his severe depression and other mental health problems would worsen.
US government lawyers deny that Assange is being prosecuted solely for publishing the leaked documents, saying the case is “largely based on his unlawful involvement” in the theft of diplomatic cables and military files by the intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning. US Army.
Assange’s prosecution has been condemned by journalists and human rights groups, who say it undermines freedom of expression around the world.
“The mere fact that this case has been brought to trial, let alone taken so long, is a historic, large-scale attack on freedom of expression,” said WikiLeaks spokesman Kristinn Hrafnsson. “This is a battle that affects everyone’s right to know and is being fought together.”
Assange’s legal troubles began in 2010 when he was arrested in London at the request of Sweden, who wanted to question him on allegations of rape and sexual assault by two women. To avoid being sent to Sweden, Assange took refuge at the Ecuadorian Embassy, where he was out of reach of the British and Swedish authorities – but in fact a prisoner unable to enter the small diplomatic mission. leave the London area of Knightsbridge.
Assange’s relationship with his hosts eventually soured, and he was expelled from the embassy in April 2019. British police immediately arrested him for jumping on bail in 2012.
Sweden stopped the investigation of sex crimes in November 2019 because so much time had passed, but Assange is still in the maximum-security Belmarsh prison in London, who was brought to court in a prison van during his extradition hearing.