Washington promises that, while in custody, Assange would receive appropriate psychological treatment.
Julian Assange’s defense questioned this Thursday “the reliability” of the guarantees offered by the United States about his treatment in prison if he is extradited to that country, which wants to try him for the revelations of its WikiLeaks portal, in the second hearing before the Superior Court of London of an appeal lodged by Washington.
Assange’s lawyer, Edward Fitzgerald, maintained that the four “diplomatic assurances” raised on Wednesday by prosecutor James Lewis, representing the US Justice, “are late” and are formulated in such a “vague, nuanced or simply ineffective manner. “They do not ensure that their client, who suffers from depression and other ailments, received adequate treatment.
The London court will conclude today its analysis of the appeal presented by the United States against a ruling of January 4 that denied the extradition of the Australian for risk of suicide, although the ruling is not expected for a few weeks.
When exposing yesterday the bases of his appeal, Lewis maintained that the judge of first instance Vanessa Baraitser “erred” in her interpretation of article 91 of the British extradition law of 2003 (which allows to reject the surrender if the mental health of the defendant is so bad that it would be “unjust and oppressive” to authorize it); He questioned the testimony for the defense on the state of Assange of the psychiatrist Michael Kopelman and criticized that the magistrate did not request then safeguards on the penitentiary regime that would be applied.
He then offered four guarantees, which the defense considers that “he could have raised in January” on his own initiative.
Thus, according to Lewis, the computer programmer and internet activist would not be subjected, if extradited, to “special administrative measures” (SAM), such as having visits or correspondence banned, neither before the trial nor if he were convicted, he would not enter the ADX Florence super maximum security prison in Colorado, unless – he mattered – he later 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.
Fitzgerald countered this Thursday that “none of this prevents” his client from being detained in a harmful isolation regime or entering another restrictive prison of the many in the US, or from Washington “changing its mind” regarding the SAM.
He also doubted that the offer of medical treatment is sufficient – given the suicide attempts of prisoners in a similar situation – and pointed out that a possible transfer to Australia would occur at the end of a long legal process and could eventually be rejected by both the department of American justice as for the Australian.
The lawyer defended that Baraitser applied “scrupulously” the extraditorial law by judging that the depressive disorder, together with the Asperger syndrome, that Assange suffers from make it “very likely” that he will try to commit suicide if he is extradited to the US, ” regardless of the measures taken “to prevent it.
He also vindicated Kopelman’s testimony, whom the prosecutor accused of “misleading” the judge by not mentioning in the first of two reports that the defendant had formed a relationship and had two children with Stella Moris while he was taking refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy. in London.
Fitzgerald explained that Baraitser “accepted the explanation” from the psychiatrist that he initially omitted Moris to “protect his privacy” when their link was not yet known and everyone feared for his safety. (I)
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