British justice ruled, Monday, January 4, that the founder of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, could not be extradited to the United States for having obtained and published in 2010 secret American government documents, as well as for hacking. . Judge Vanessa Baraitser ruled that the whistleblower’s psychological state was incompatible with extradition.
When reading the main elements of her judgment, the judge however began by dismissing one by one most of the arguments presented by the defense of the founder of WikiLeaks, making the lawyers of Mr. Assange fear a snub. She thus asserted that freedom of expression did not preclude the Australian’s extradition.
However, she was much more receptive to arguments related to her state of health. During the hearing, several professionals who examined Mr. Assange had detected great psychological weaknesses and concluded that he suffered in particular from severe depression – including having planned his suicide in prison. Since the spring of 2019, Mr. Assange has been held in Belmarsh prison, south-east London, where he is considered a prisoner at risk of suicide.
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A decision not totally surprising
Vanessa Baraitser ruled that an extradition to the United States would expose her to detention in a high-security prison, along with special security measures restricting her contact with relatives and other detainees. She also explained that Mr. Assange was able to thwart devices aimed at preventing inmate suicide attempts. It is for this reason that it refused to accede to the American request.
The conditions of Mr. Assange’s detention in the United States in the event of extradition were among the main fears of his lawyers and relatives. The lawyer Stella Morris, with whom he had two children when he was a refugee in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, considered Sunday in an interview with the German weekly Der Spiegel that extraditing him to the United States would amount to“Bury alive”.
The decision of the British justice is not entirely surprising. She has indeed already taken a similar decision, for identical reasons and in a very close case: in 2018, she had in fact concluded that the autism and depression of Lauri Love, claimed by Washington for acts of computer hacking, stood in the way of a possible transfer to the United States.
“Huge relief”
In the United States, the founder of WikiLeaks faces a prison sentence of one hundred and seventy-five years. Besides possessing and publishing confidential documents, he is also accused of hacking for helping his source obtain documents. The American prosecution also accuses Mr. Assange of having endangered certain informants of the American army by revealing their identity, which the Australian and his team have vehemently denied.
At the heart of the American accusations is the activity of WikiLeaks in 2010 and 2011, when the organization published, in partnership with numerous media, including The world, secret documents shedding light on the activities of the American army in Iraq and Afghanistan, but also documents from the Guantanamo prison or tens of thousands of diplomatic telegrams.
This decision is a clear victory for the team of Mr. Assange and his relatives, who expected a validation of the extradition. According to Barry Pollack, the American lawyer for Mr. Assange, the team of lawyers who defended the founder of WikiLeaks is “Extremely satisfied” of the decision of the British justice. “We hope that, taking into account the court’s decision, the United States will decide not to pursue this case any further”, he continued.
“It’s a huge relief and a satisfaction”, also welcomed Antoine Vey, Mr. Assange’s lawyer in France. When the decision was announced, Julian Assange’s companion, Stella Morris, could not contain a few tears.
The health argument above all
The diagnosis will be more nuanced for the many observers and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) who have stressed that extradition to the United States, for almost exclusively journalistic facts, represented a serious threat to press freedom.
Indeed, the judge endorsed the American arguments justifying the extradition of Mr. Assange for his journalistic activity: only the health argument tipped the scales in favor of the founder of WikiLeaks. She therefore considered that freedom of expression did not preclude her extradition; that he had gone ” beyond “ the activity of a simple journalist; that he had endangered certain individuals whose identity had not been redacted from the documents published by WikiLeaks; and that it had no evidence to suggest that a trial in the United States would violate Mr. Assange’s human rights.
While noting that the case had not been tried “On the basis of press freedoms”, the American NGO Freedom of the Press Foundation still welcomed this decision. “It’s a huge relief for anyone who is committed to the rights of journalists” and “This result will protect journalists”, she explained on Twitter. “Assange’s refusal to extradite is a pivotal historic decision for the right to information. It makes it possible not to pose an additional threat to investigative journalism ”, on his side declared the secretary general of Reporters Without Borders, Christophe Deloire.
This judgment marks a decisive step in the standoff between the Australian and British and American justice. However, this is not the end of it: the prosecution has announced its intention to appeal the decision of the British justice. “Even though we are extremely disappointed with the court’s final decision, we are satisfied because the United States was upheld on all the points of law raised. We will continue to seek to extradite Mr. Assange to the United States ” Marc Raimondi, spokesman for the US Department of Justice, explained in a statement.
Waiting, after the announcement of the decision, Mr. Assange returned to prison: his lawyers must now file a request for release on bail, which will be examined on Wednesday.
The imminent arrival of Joe Biden at the White House could however reshuffle the cards of the file. The American president has significant powers of amnesty and it is not known the intentions of the next occupant of the Oval Office towards Mr. Assange. Mr. Biden was vice president when his administration gave up suing WikiLeaks and its founder. However, in 2010 he had very harsh words towards the Australian, calling him “High-tech terrorist”.
