Wikileaks: Julian Assange - Journalism, Leaks, Collateral Murder, Censorship

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UK judge refuses extradition of WikiLeaks founder Assange
By JILL LAWLESS
January 4, 2021 12:21 GMT

LONDON (AP) — A British judge on Monday rejected the United States’
request to extradite WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to face
espionage charges, saying he was likely to kill himself if held under
harsh U.S. prison conditions.

District Judge Vanessa Baraitser rejected allegations that Assange is
being prosecuted for political reasons or would not receive a fair
trial in the United States. But she said his precarious mental health
would likely deteriorate further under the conditions of “near total
isolation” he would face in U.S. prison.

“I find that the mental condition of Mr. Assange is such that it would
be oppressive to extradite him to the United States of America,” the
judge said.

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

The U.S. government said it would appeal the decision. Assange’s
lawyers said they would ask for his release from a London prison where
he has been held for more than a year-and-a-half at a bail hearing on
Wednesday.

Assange, who sat in the dock at London’s Central Criminal Court for
the ruling, wiped his brow as the decision was announced. His partner
Stella Moris, with whom he has two young sons, wept.

Assange’s American lawyer, Barry Pollack, said the legal team was
“enormously gratified by the U.K. court’s decision denying
extradition.”

“The effort by the United States to prosecute Julian Assange and seek
his extradition was ill-advised from the start,” he said. “We hope
that after consideration of the U.K. court’s ruling, the United States
will decide not to pursue the case further.”

The ruling marks a dramatic moment in Assange’s years-long legal
battles in Britain — though likely not its final chapter.

U.S. prosecutors have indicted Assange on 17 espionage charges and one
charge of computer misuse over WikiLeaks’ publication of leaked
military and diplomatic documents a decade ago. The charges carry a
maximum sentence of 175 years in prison.

Lawyers for the 49-year-old Australian 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 U.S. military
wrongdoing in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The judge, however, said Assange’s actions, if proven, would “amount
to offenses in this jurisdiction that would not be protected by his
right to freedom of speech.”

The defense also argued during a three-week hearing in the fall that
extradition threatens Assange’s human rights because he risks “a
grossly disproportionate sentence” and detention in “draconian and
inhumane conditions” that would exacerbate his severe depression and
other mental health problems.

The judge agreed that U.S. prison conditions would be oppressive. She
accepted evidence from expert witnesses that Assange had a depressive
disorder and an autism spectrum disorder.

“I accept that oppression as a bar to extradition requires a high
threshold. ... However, I am satisfied that, in these harsh
conditions, Mr. Assange’s mental health would deteriorate causing him
to commit suicide with the ‘single minded determination’ of his autism
spectrum disorder,” the judge said in her ruling.

Lawyers for the U.S. government deny that Assange is being prosecuted
merely for publishing the leaked documents, saying the case “is in
large part based upon his unlawful involvement” in the theft of the
diplomatic cables and military files by U.S. Army intelligence analyst
Chelsea Manning.

The prosecution of Assange has been condemned by journalists and human
rights groups, who say it undermines free speech around the world.

They welcomed the judge’s decision, even though it was not made on
free-speech grounds.

“This is a huge relief to anyone who cares about the rights of
journalists,” The Freedom of the Press Foundation tweeted:

“The extradition request was not decided on press freedom grounds;
rather, the judge essentially ruled the U.S. prison system was too
repressive to extradite. However, the result will protect journalists
everywhere.”

Assange’s legal troubles began in 2010, when he was arrested in London
at the request of Sweden, which wanted to question him about
allegations of rape and sexual assault made by two women. In 2012, to
avoid being sent to Sweden, Assange sought refuge inside the
Ecuadorian Embassy, where he was beyond the reach of U.K. and Swedish
authorities — but also effectively a prisoner, unable to leave the
tiny diplomatic mission in London’s tony Knightsbridge area.

The relationship between Assange and his hosts eventually soured, and
he was evicted from the embassy in April 2019. British police
immediately arrested him for jumping bail in 2012.

Sweden dropped the sex crimes investigations in November 2019 because
so much time had elapsed, but Assange remains in London’s
high-security Belmarsh Prison, brought to court in a prison van
throughout his extradition hearing.