UK High Court reverses course, approves Julian Assange's extradition to US

[Anonymous Remailer (australia)]

A UK High Court has approved the extradition of WikiLeaks
founder Julian Assange to the US.

Assange has been wanted by US authorities since the early 2010s
for his role in acquiring and disseminating military and
diplomatic documents via the WikiLeaks website. Following a long
stint at Ecuador's embassy in London, he was finally arrested in
2019, when his asylum was revoked. He has been indicted on 18
criminal counts, including 17 espionage charges. The collective
maximum sentence for all charges comes to 175 years, but the US
government has indicated that the actual imprisonment would be
far, far shorter.

This decision follows an earlier ruling made in January 2021,
which denied the US request based on the court's perception that
it posed too great a risk to Assange's wellbeing. The judge
forbade the extradition due to "a recurrent depressive disorder
which was severe in December 2019 and sometimes accompanied by
psychotic features (hallucinations), often with ruminative
suicidal ideas."

The new ruling takes concerns over Assange's mental health into
account, but it also integrates a series of four "assurances"
made by US officials. These include: a promise that Assange will
never be held under any "special administrative measures"; a
commitment to never house him within a maximum security prison;
a guarantee that he will be allowed to serve his final sentence
in his native Australia, if he wishes; and a commitment to
provide him with "appropriate clinical and psychological
treatment as recommended by a qualified treating clinician at
the prison where he is held."

Assange's fiancée, Stella Morris, was outraged by the decision,
telling the UK's Sky News that his legal counsel intended to
appeal the decision "at the earliest possible moment." She
called the repeal a "grave miscarriage of justice," asking how
the UK could allow him to be sent to a country that "plotted to
kill him."

This final accusation likely relates to reporting from earlier
this year, which claims that the Trump administration explored
the possibility of forcibly kidnapping or assassinating Assange
in 2017. The US government has never officially commented on
this report.

Assange remains a controversial figure, with organizations like
Amnesty International and individuals like Edward Snowden still
calling for his release based on concerns over preserving
freedom of speech and the arrest's chilling effect on
investigative journalism. The US government, however, has never
wavered in its stance that the WikiLeaks founder's actions were
criminal in nature, putting lives at risk by divulging
classified information to enemies of the US.

Assange's legal team now has 14 days to file their appeal, which
will delay any extradition proceedings until that filing is
subsequently resolved.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/uk-high-court-approves-julian-
assanges-extradition-to-us/