The British judiciary on Thursday (28) suspended the judgment of the US appeal against the decision not to extradite the founder of WikiLeaks. According to Julian Assange’s defense, there is no date or forecast for a decision and the verdict could take weeks or months.
Washington is appealing the decision of Judge Vanessa Baraitser, who decided not to authorize his extradition on the grounds that he would be at risk of suicide if he were transferred to the US — where he could face a sentence of 175 years in prison.
In order to be able to extradite one of the WikiLeaks founders, US legal representatives question the testimony of physician Michael Kopelman, who attested to Assange’s suicide risk, and also promise that more severe punishments, such as solitary confinement, will not be used. The promise that he could serve time in Australia, his native country, was also placed on the table.
Read more: Trial of Swedish digital security expert and friend of Assange postponed in Ecuador
A journalist defense, however, says that the promises can be broken without further consequences, if the decision of the United States. Lawyers also claim that the promises of a government that planned to kidnap and assassinate Assange cannot be considered.
Report from Yahoo News revealed that US authorities had devised plans to kidnap and even murder him. The measures would have been discussed after WilkiLeaks published confidential CIA information during Donald Trump’s government.
After spending seven years at the Ecuadorian embassy in London, Assange was expelled by decision of the Quito authorities and imprisoned. She has been held in Belmarsh maximum security prison since April 2019.
Edition: Arturo Hartmann
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