U.K. court to hear U.S. appeal in Julian Assange extradition case – National

The USA requested Britain’s Excessive Courtroom on Wednesday to overturn a choose’s choice that Julian Assange shouldn’t be despatched to the US to face espionage costs, promising that the WikiLeaks founder may serve any jail sentence he receives in his native Australia.

In January, a decrease court docket choose refused an American request to extradite Assange on spying costs over WikiLeaks’ publication of secret army paperwork a decade in the past. District Choose Vanessa Baraitser denied extradition on well being grounds, saying Assange was prone to kill himself if held beneath harsh U.S. jail situations.

An legal professional for the U.S. authorities, James Lewis, argued Wednesday that the choose was fallacious to conclude that Assange’s psychological well being was too fragile to face up to the U.S. judicial system.

Assange “has no historical past of significant and enduring psychological sickness” and doesn’t meet the edge of being so in poor health that he can not resist harming himself, the lawyer mentioned.

Lewis mentioned American authorities had promised that Assange wouldn’t be held earlier than trial in a top-security “Supermax” jail or subjected to strict isolation situations, and if convicted can be allowed to serve his sentence in Australia.

Lewis mentioned the assurances “are binding on the US.”

“As soon as there’s an assurance of acceptable medical care, as soon as it’s clear he shall be repatriated to Australia to serve any sentence, then we are able to safely say the district choose wouldn’t have determined the related query in the best way that she did,” he mentioned.

Assange’s lawyer, Edward Fitzgerald, mentioned in a written submission that Australia had not agreed to take Assange if he’s convicted. Even when Australia did agree, Fitzgerald mentioned the U.S. authorized course of may take a decade, “throughout which Mr. Assange will stay detained in excessive isolation in a U.S. jail.”

He accused U.S. legal professionals of in search of to “decrease the severity of Mr Assange’s psychological dysfunction and suicide threat.”

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WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange can’t be extradited to U.S., British choose guidelines

Assange, who’s being held at London’s high-security Belmarsh Jail, had been anticipated to attend the two-day listening to by video hyperlink, however Fitzgerald mentioned Assange had been placed on a excessive dose of remedy and “doesn’t really feel in a position to attend the proceedings.”

Assange later appeared on the video hyperlink at instances in the course of the day, seated at a desk in a jail room, carrying a black face masks.

A number of dozen pro-Assange protesters held a boisterous rally exterior London’s neo-Gothic Royal Courts of Justice all through the day, calling the prosecution politically motivated and demanding it’s dropped.

The demonstrators included Chinese language dissident artist Ai Weiwei, who mentioned Assange’s case “pertains to our society, it pertains to our freedom of expression, it pertains to our particular person human rights, and we’ve to observe the federal government”

The 2 justices listening to the attraction — one is England’s most senior choose, Lord Chief Justice Ian Burnett — are usually not anticipated to offer their ruling for a number of weeks. That can doubtless not finish the epic authorized saga, nonetheless, because the dropping aspect may search to attraction to the U.Okay. Supreme Courtroom.

U.S. prosecutors have indicted Assange on 17 espionage costs and one cost of laptop misuse over WikiLeaks’ publication of 1000’s of leaked army and diplomatic paperwork. The fees carry a most sentence of 175 years in jail, although Lewis mentioned “the longest sentence ever imposed for this offense is 63 months.”

American prosecutors say Assange unlawfully helped U.S. Military intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning steal labeled diplomatic cables and army information that WikiLeaks later printed. Attorneys for Assange argue that he was performing as a journalist and is entitled to First Modification freedom of speech protections for publishing paperwork that uncovered U.S. army wrongdoing in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In her January judgment, Baraitser rejected protection arguments that Assange faces a politically motivated American prosecution that will override free-speech protections, and he or she mentioned the U.S. judicial system would give him a good trial.

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Julian Assange’s father speaks exterior his son’s extradition listening to

WikiLeaks supporters say testimony from witnesses in the course of the extradition listening to that Assange was spied on whereas within the embassy by a Spanish safety agency on the behest of the CIA — and that there was even speak of abducting or killing him — undermines U.S. claims he shall be handled pretty.

Assange, 50, has been in jail since he was arrested in April 2019 for skipping bail throughout a separate authorized battle. Earlier than that he spent seven years holed up inside Ecuador’s London embassy, the place he fled in 2012 to keep away from extradition to Sweden to face allegations of rape and sexual assault.

Sweden dropped the intercourse crimes investigations in November 2019 as a result of a lot time had elapsed. The choose who blocked extradition in January ordered that he should keep in custody throughout any U.S. attraction, ruling that the Australian citizen “has an incentive to abscond” if he’s freed.

Outdoors court docket, Assange’s associate Stella Moris mentioned she was “very involved for Julian’s well being,” and referred to as it “fully unthinkable that the U.Okay. courts may agree” to extradition.

“I hope the courts will finish this nightmare, that Julian is ready to come residence quickly and that smart heads prevail,” she mentioned.