WikiLeaks Founder, Julian Assange, moved a step closer to being Extradited to the U.S., when Friday, the British Court ruled. The High Court decided in favor of the U.S. Government in its Application to Overturn an earlier Ruling preventing Assange from being Extradited.
Authorities in the U.S. accuse Assange of 18 Charges relating to WikiLeaks publishing Thousands of Classified U.S. Military and Diplomatic Documents, Primarily in 2009 and 2010.
The U.S. Government’s Appeal challenged an initial Ruling made Jan. 4th, by a London District Judge, declining to Extradite Assange to the U.S. largely due to the risk he would take his Life in a Maximum Security Prison.
One of the Senior Judges in the Appeal, Lord Justice Holroyde, said on Friday, that the Court would allow Assange’s Extradition on the basis that the U.S. had offered a Package of Assurances concerning his proposed Treatment in Custody.
These included an Agreement to send Assange to his Home Country of Australia to serve the Prison Sentence and Not to Incarcerate him in Super-Maximum Security Prison, ADX Florence. They also included an Agreement Not to Subject him to a Highly Restrictive form of Solitary Confinement, provided he did Not Commit another Offence.
The High Court Judges said they were satisfied by the Promises made by the U.S. to Reduce the Risk of Suicide. Holroyde said Friday, that the District Judge “ought to have notified the U.S. of her provisional view, to afford it the opportunity to offer assurances to the court.”
In an October Hearing, Assange’s Lawyers criticized the U.S. Government’s Assurances, calling them “conditional” and “aspirational”. Representing Assange, Edward Fitzgerald QC said Australia had Not yet Agreed to take Assange in if he was Convicted, and he predicted his Client would be put in Solitary Confinement “as soon as he arrives in America.”
The British High Court Rejected those concerns on Friday, on the basis that the Assurances sufficiently Protected Assange from any harm.
Prior to the Judgement being announced, a Coalition of 25 Press Freedom, Civil Liberties, and International Human Rights Organizations signed a Letter, to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, urging the U.S. to Drop its Appeal in Assange’s Extradition Case, saying that he acted in the Public Interest.
“We appreciate that the government has a legitimate interest in protecting bona fide national security interests, but the proceedings against Mr. Assange jeopardize journalism that is crucial to democracy,” the Letter reads. “In our view, a precedent created by prosecuting Assange could be used against publishers and journalists alike, chilling their work and undermining freedom of the press.”
The Coalition said that the Reports of a CIA Plot to Assassinate Assange “only heightens our concerns about the motivations behind this prosecution, and about the dangerous precedent that is being set.”
Assange will remain in Custody in High-Security Belmarsh Prison.
The Judge ordered the Case to be sent to British Home Secretary, Priti Patel, to decide on whether the Extradition should go ahead. The Home Secretary is like the U.S. Attorney General.
Reuters reported that Assange’s Fiancée and Mother of his Two Children, Stella Moris, said in a Statement: “We will appeal this decision at the earliest possible moment.”
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