British Court Considers Extraditing Julian Assange
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange will find out early next year to find out if he will be extradited to the United States to face charges including espionage, after his hearing finished at a London court. The case marks the first time in United States history that publishing information is being charged under the Espionage Act.
Assange has been indicted in on 17 spying charges and one charge of computer hacking regarding the publication of secret military documents.
The hacking charge was included recently, meaning that the defence had no witness to appropriately deal with the hacking allegations. In the US, Assange, is accused of conspiring to hack government computers and of violating an espionage law in connection with the release of confidential cables by WikiLeaks in 2010-2011.
Judge Vanessa Baraitser told London's Old Bailey Court at the conclusion of hearings from witnesses in the case that she would deliver her verdict on January 4. and has previously denied Assange bail over fears he is a flight risk. Assange jumped bail in 2012 when he sought asylum at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, where he ended up staying for seven years before being evicted and subsequently arrested. He has been in a London prison since April 2019.
Assange's lawyers argue that the charges are politically motivated, that his mental health is at risk, that conditions in US prisons breach Britain's human rights laws, and that he and his lawyers were spied on while he was in the Ecuadorian embassy.
The legal team representing the United States have countered that many of those arguments are issues which should be addressed in a trial, and have no bearing on extradition.
Assange’s defence team has argued that he is entitled to protections under the US constitution for the publication of leaked documents exposing US military wrongdoing in Iraq and Afghanistan. They also argue that the extradition request is politically motivated, asserting that US hostility increased after Trump came to power and that he and the then FBI director general James Comey reportedly suggested “putting a head on a pike as a message” in order to plug leaks.
Medical experts called by his legal team have also spoken about his wide-ranging mental health issues, which they say could be worsened if he ended up living in the conditions of a US “supermax” prison. A psychiatrist who frequently visited him in prison in London told the court that he was at high risk of suicide if sent to the US.
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