WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on Monday won his legal battle against being extradited from the UK to face espionage charges — after a judge decided he would likely commit suicide if sent to the US.
District Judge Vanessa Baraitser ruled that it would be “oppressive” to extradite the 49-year-old Australian because of his mental health as he faced up to 175 years in prison for allegedly hacking into US government computers.
She described Assange as “a depressed and sometimes despairing man” who had the “intellect and determination” to circumvent any suicide prevention measures taken by American prison authorities.
The US government immediately announced that it would appeal the decision.
Assange’s lawyers, meanwhile, said they would press for his release from a London prison during a bail hearing set for 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.
“Today is a victory for Julian. Today’s victory is the first step towards justice in this case,” Moris said outside court, saying she was “extremely concerned” that the US government planned to appeal.
“It continues to want to punish Julian, and make him disappear into the deepest, darkest hole of the US prison system for the rest of his life,” she said, saying they will only “celebrate the day he comes home.”
Assange has been in custody in the UK since April 2019, when he was arrested after being booted from his safe-haven in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London.
US 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.
Assange’s lawyers have insisted that he was acting as a journalist and is entitled to First Amendment protections of freedom of speech for publishing leaked documents that exposed US military wrongdoing in Iraq and Afghanistan.
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 Freedom of the Press Foundation called the attempted extradition and prosecution “the most dangerous threat to US press freedom in decades.”
“This is a huge relief to anyone who cares about the rights of journalists,” it tweeted of Monday’s court ruling. “The result will protect journalists everywhere.”
With Post wires
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