Julian Assange may be extradited to the United States where he is accused of spying for the Wikileaks revelations. This was ruled by the British High Court, thus overturning the previous sentence in which the district judge Vanessa Baraitser had said last January that Assange could not be extradited due to concerns about mental health and the risk of committing suicide in prison. The High Court’s decision comes after the US side presented a package of measures to address these concerns.
The “risk” of Assange being subjected to too strict conditions of detention “was excluded from the assurances that were offered” by the United States. This is what the chief judge of the British High Court, Lord Burnett said, announcing the decision today.
Washington has given assurances that Assange would not be subjected to particular restrictions in high-security prisons either before or after trial, unless necessary. “We are satisfied with these assurances” argue the judges of the High Court also stating that if they had been presented to the district judge who denied extradition in January “he would have answered the question differently”.
“This conclusion is sufficient to determine that this appeal is in favor of the United States“, then concludes the sentence of Lord Burnett against which Assange will always be able to appeal. Indicted on 18 counts, 17 of which refer to the Espionage Act, Assange risks a sentence of 175 years. US lawyers have provided reassurance that the sentence for publishing the thousands of top secret documents on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq could be between four and six years.
The Wikileaks founder will be able to present his final appeal to the British Supreme Court which will have to choose whether or not to accept the case. The Court usually accepts appeals of “general public importance” or constitutional significance. The whole process could take weeks, maybe months.
If the Supreme Court were to refuse Assange’s appeal, the 50-year-old of Australian origin would have exhausted the demands of the British judicial system. But his lawyers could try to get his extradition suspended by appealing to the European Court of Human Rights.
Indicted in the Trump administration for violating the Espionage Act, Assange it is the first case in which federal prosecutors have hit not only the source of the confidential material but also the publisher.
Chelsea Manning, the former military services specialist who passed the information to Assange, was in prison between 2010 and 2017 when, shortly before leaving the White House, Barack Obama reduced his sentence, calling it “disproportionate. “the 35-year sentence that was imposed on her in 2013. Manning returned to prison for almost a year, between 2019 and 2020, for refusing to testify before the grand jury that later indicted Assange.
The Biden administration’s Justice Department gave assurance in a diplomatic note sent last February that Assange will not be “subjected to special restraining measures” or detained in a maximum-security prison. Furthermore, the United States undertakes to “consent” to a request to serve any sentence in Australia and to guarantee “adequate medical and psychological treatment” to the prisoner.
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