London court rejects US extradition request for Julian Assange

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange.

Image: Lefteris Pitarakis / AP

(dpa)

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange will not be extradited to the United States. A London court denied the US request on Monday. Judge Vanessa Baraitser based her decision on Assange’s mental health and the conditions of detention that would await him in the United States. Hopefully he will commit suicide in solitary confinement. The United States was expected to appeal the verdict.

In front of the pitch, the 49-year-old’s supporters celebrated the decision with cheers and leaps of joy, as a reporter from the German press agency observed. Assange’s fiancée, Stella Moris, with whom he has two young children, burst into tears following the verdict in court. His lawyers wanted to ask for bail.

The US judiciary accuses Australian Assange of stealing and publishing secret material from US military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan together with whistleblower Chelsea Manning, then Bradley Manning. It involves hundreds of thousands of documents. The 49-year-old man put the lives of American informants at risk, hence the accusation. Yet his supporters see him as an investigative journalist who has exposed war crimes. Assange would have threatened up to 175 years in prison if convicted.

Whistleblower Edward Snowden praised the verdict. On Twitter he wrote: “Many thanks to everyone who has fought against one of the most dangerous threats to press freedom in decades.”

The German Association of Journalists (DJV) reacted “with joy and relief.” The judge’s verdict is a major success “for all journalists who work with explosive material that powerful people are not interested in publishing,” said DJV Federal President Frank Überall. The German Union of Journalists (dju) emphasized that a decision to extradite would have been equivalent to a “declaration of state bankruptcy.”

The foreign policy spokesman for the left-wing parliamentary group, Gregor Gysi, also stressed that the rejection of extradition “is an important step to safeguard the rule of law, in the interests of press freedom and towards democratic stability.” Assange must be fired as soon as possible.

However, the judge made it clear that the case was not politically motivated. Assange’s behavior went beyond the normal behavior of an investigative journalist. He was aware of the danger to informants when he did not hide their names in published documents. “The right to freedom of expression does not give people like Assange unlimited discretion to decide the fate of others,” the judge said.

There is also no evidence that the administration of US President Donald Trump has put pressure on prosecutors, he said. “There is little to no evidence that President Trump is hostile to Mr. Assange or Wikileaks.”

The litigation is likely to continue in the UK for the time being, as the decision can be appealed. After a new instance, the procedure could go to the British Supreme Court and ultimately deal with the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. Human rights activists, politicians, and organizations like Reporters Without Borders had previously warned that Assange would not get a fair trial in the United States.

The Wikileaks founder had been in the Belmarsh high-security prison in the southeast of the British capital for about a year and a half. In view of the corona pandemic, it was only allowed to receive a very limited number of visitors, and phone calls abroad were not unlimited. Due to a crown outbreak in prison, an entire block was temporarily quarantined. Family members have always been concerned about Assange’s mental and health condition.