Claimed by American justice, the 49-year-old Australian, prosecuted in particular for espionage, won a first victory on Monday. British judge Vanessa Baraitser refused her extradition to the United States.
Le Monde avec AFP
Two days after refusing to ‘extradite Julian Assange to the United States, which wants to try him for the distribution of hundreds of thousands of confidential documents, the British justice examines Wednesday January 6 the request for release of the founder of WikiLeaks.
Claimed by American justice, the 49-year-old Australian, prosecuted in particular for espionage, won a first victory on Monday. Citing the risk of suicide of the founder of WikiLeaks in the American prison system, British judge Vanessa Baraitser refused his extradition to the United States.
In the wake of the decision, the American authorities notified the court their intention to appeal. But while awaiting the continuation of the procedure, the British justice must rule on the release or the continued detention of Mr. Assange, who is currently behind bars of the high security prison of Belmarsh, east of London. The hearing is scheduled for 11 a.m. (Paris time). Until then all his requests for release have been refused.
A “political” procedure based on “lies”
Julian Assange was arrested by British police in April 2019 after having spent seven years in seclusion at the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where he had taken refuge while on bail. He feared extradition to the United States or Sweden, where he has faced rape charges that have since been dropped.
The Australian, supported by a number of press freedom organizations, faces 175 years in prison in the United States for having distributed, from 2010, more than 700,000 documents classified on American military and diplomatic activities, in particular in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The United States accuses him of having endangered American service sources, an accusation that he disputes. Among the documents released was a video showing civilians killed by US gunship fire in Iraq in July 2007, including two journalists from the Reuters news agency.
During the hearing, who took place over five weeks in February and in September, a psychiatrist who examined Assange had mentioned a “very high” risk of suicide if he were to be extradited to the United States. His lawyers had denounced a “political” procedure based on “lies”.
“Julian Assange must be released immediately, rehabilitated and compensated”
If the British judge rejected the arguments falling under the defense of freedom of expression, she estimated that “the procedures described by the United States will not prevent her from committing suicide”. She therefore refused the extradition “for reasons of mental health”.
In her decision, the magistrate noted “insufficient evidence of pressure from the Trump administration on prosecutors” and “little or no evidence of hostility” by the outgoing US president “towards Mr. Assange or WikiLeaks”. She also said that Assange’s deal with hacker groups to obtain documents “took him beyond the role of investigative journalism.”
Long-standing support , the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, Nils Melzer, said in a statement that “Julian Assange must now be immediately released, rehabilitated and compensated for the abuse and arbitrariness to which he has been exposed” .
After the refusal to extradite the founder of WikiLeaks, his companion, lawyer Stella Moris, hailed Monday a “victory”, a “first step towards justice”. But as long as Julian Assange – to whom Mexico offered political asylum on Monday – remains in detention despite not having been sentenced and the two children she had with him are deprived of their father, he would be premature to rejoice too much, she said: “We will celebrate the day he comes home.”