Court agrees with the US and rules that Julian Assange can be extradited

The United States won an appeal on Friday before the London Court of Appeal against a ruling last January that had denied the extradition of WikiLeaks activist Julian Assange to that country due to the risk of suicide.

The judges of this court have concluded that the US government has offered sufficient guarantees that Assange will receive adequate treatment to protect his mental health and have ruled that he can be extradited.

Magistrate Timothy Holroyde indicated that the case will now be returned to the first instance judge Vanessa Baraitser -who denied delivery on January 4- so that she may in turn refer it to the Minister of the Interior, Priti Patel, so that she can order extradition.

Holroyde also ordered that Assange, 50, will continue to be detained in the London high security prison of Belmarsh, where he is serving preventive detention until the end of this process, which can still be appealed by the defense.

In the ruling, signed by Holroyde and his colleague Ian Burnett -who was unable to be present at the brief hearing today-, the judges consider that Baraitser, of the Westminster Magistrates Court, should have informed the US Justice in advance that he thought block extradition so that he could already present guarantees on the prison regime that would apply to the accused.

In any case, the guarantees that Washington subsequently presented to the Court of Appeal “are sufficient,” say the magistrates, who reject the defense’s criticism.

During the trial on October 27 and 28, prosecutor James Lewis, representing the United States Justice, guaranteed that, if extradited, the journalist will not be subjected to “special administrative measures” (SAM), such as having Visits or correspondence prohibited, neither before the trial nor if he were convicted, nor would he enter the ADX Florence jail – super maximum security – in Colorado, unless – he added – later he did something to deserve it.

In addition, Washington promises that, while in custody, Assange would receive appropriate psychological treatment and, if convicted, could serve it in his native Australia.

The United States demands the Australian to try him for 18 crimes of espionage and computer intrusion after the revelations of its WikiLeaks portal, which, among other things, exposed abuses by that country in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

According to the defense, the charges, which it says can carry up to 175 years in prison, are politically motivated and, if they end in conviction, it would be a catastrophic precedent for press freedom. (I)