Julian Assange’s combat for freedom is way from over

The resolution to dam Julian Assange’s extradition to the US is unlikely to make him a free man anytime quickly. Assange, who has spent the final decade both in a UK jail or caught in Ecuador’s embassy in London, received an essential authorized combat Monday when a choose dominated that he shouldn’t be despatched to the US to face felony prices.
While his authorized staff prepares for a bail listening to Wednesday, prosecutors mentioned they may combat his launch as they attraction the choice, dragging the method by the British courts for months or years.
This “is not the end of the story,” mentioned Jasvinder Nakhwal, an extradition lawyer at Peters & Peters in London who wasn’t concerned in Assange’s listening to.
The 49-year-old initially took shelter within the Ecuadorian embassy in 2012 after he misplaced a UK Supreme Court attraction of his extradition to Sweden for questioning on rape allegations.
While the Swedish case was later dropped, Assange was booted out of the embassy in April 2019 and arrested for skipping his UK bail. That similar day, the US introduced it was charging him with espionage for his position in releasing a whole bunch of hundreds of pages of labeled paperwork by way of WikiLeaks, with the assistance of US Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning. He is being held in London’s Belmarsh jail.
“‘He has a very poor history,’ that’s all prosecutors need to say,” extradition lawyer Daniel Sternberg mentioned, referring to Assange’s breach of earlier bails. “Prison authorities would consider him to be a flight risk. He’s likely to be in Belmarsh for the time being.”
The resolution by London Judge Vanessa Baraitser — based mostly on fears that he may commit suicide in a US jail — got here as a shock to most. In the weeks earlier than the listening to, his supporters put extra religion in a presidential pardon than on profitable the case. Even Assange’s fiancee, Stella Moris, mentioned she needed to re-write her speech in gentle of the choice.
Moris has spent the previous few months making direct pleas for clemency to President Donald Trump by way of Twitter and appearances on Fox News.

US Appeal
“As long as Julian has to endure suffering and isolation as an unconvicted prisoner in Belmarsh Prison and as long as our children continue to be bereft of their father’s love and affection we cannot celebrate,” Moris mentioned exterior London’s Old Bailey court docket constructing after the ruling. “We will celebrate the day he comes home.”
US prosecutors mentioned they may attraction. In an announcement, the US Justice Department pointed to Baraitser’s opinion, which backed a lot of their case and rejected Assange legal professionals’ arguments relating to truthful trial and freedom of speech. The choose additionally mentioned that there was inadequate proof to assist the allegation that prosecutors had been pressured into bringing prices by Trump’s administration.
It’s unclear whether or not US President-Elect Joe Biden will pursue the case. His transition staff declined to touch upon whether or not the Democrat’s administration would proceed to strain for Assange’s switch. At the top of his time period, President Barack Obama commuted Manning’s 35-year jail sentence.
Biden referred to as Assange a “high-tech terrorist” in 2010, saying he shouldn’t get safety offered to journalists as a result of he inspired Manning to launch the knowledge.

The US has 14 days to attraction, and the method will probably take months, significantly given the present backlog of instances attributable to the Covid-19 pandemic. Even in the event that they lose once more, they may additionally make an utility to the British Supreme Court, which is able to additional elongate the method.
It could also be a tall order for the choose to permit him bail Wednesday whereas the attraction course of continues. Even if he’s granted bail, nevertheless unlikely, there’ll most likely be very strict circumstances hooked up and the ruling may itself instantly be appealed.
“In this particular case, I’d be surprised if the judge granted him bail,” mentioned Sternberg, an extradition lawyer who doesn’t signify anybody within the case and who has labored for and in opposition to the US authorities in court docket.
The Australian has utilized for bail a number of occasions, together with on well being grounds, saying that the crowded circumstances elevated his danger of contacting Covid-19.

Baraitser cited Assange’s well being in her resolution.
She mentioned that Assange would face “conditions of significant isolation” in US jail, and cited Jeffrey Epstein’s 2019 dying for instance of when preventative measures weren’t capable of defend inmates from self-harm.
“In these harsh conditions, Mr. Assange’s mental health would deteriorate causing him to commit suicide with the ‘single-minded determination’ of his autism-spectrum disorder,” Baraitser mentioned.

Whatever occurs Wednesday, Assange continues to garner assist. Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador celebrated the British ruling and mentioned his administration would supply him political asylum.
“Assange is a journalist and he deserves an opportunity,” Lopez Obrador mentioned in his every day press convention. “I’m in favor of pardoning him. We’ll give him protection.”