She accepted the case from the defence team that it would be "oppressive" to allow Assange to be sent to a solitary confinement facility in America when considering the state of his mental health.
Assange, now a father of two, is said to have experienced suicidal ideation in Belmarsh and has been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder and depression. The court also heard how the year-old had planned for the end of his life. Noting this, Baraitser said Assange came across as a "depressed and sometimes despairing man" who would be deemed a high suicide risk.
She said she believed he had the "intellect and determination" to circumvent suicide protection measures if he so wished. Not really. In her ruling, Judge Baraitser upheld the majority of the prosecution's arguments to extradite Assange, which included saying he could not rely on protections of free speech and freedom of the press.
She said this was because several of his actions had been outside the remit of a journalist, and would have violated the Official Secrets Act if prosecuted in the UK. Therefore, the case was completely reliant on Assange's mental health, rather than press freedom - and is what ultimately swung the decision in his favour.
Two days after the extradition hearing, Baraitser denied a bail request from Assange's lawyers, meaning he will remain in Belmarsh until the US launches its extradition appeal. It has until January 18 to do so. As a teenager, Assange discovered a talent for computer hacking, which soon brought him to the attention of Australian police.
He admitted most of the charges levelled against him, for which he paid a fine. Assange launched WikiLeaks in with a group of like-minded activists and IT experts.
His current legal saga began in -- soon after he published revelations from classified documents about US military campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan -- with rape allegations in Sweden, which he consistently denied. He was in Britain when Sweden sought his extradition, which he was able to dodge when Ecuador granted him political asylum and allowed him to live in its embassy in London. For seven years, Assange lived in a small apartment in the embassy, exercising on a treadmill and using a sun lamp to make up for the lack of natural light in a situation he compared to living in a space station.
It was revealed last April that Assange had fathered two children with his partner, South Africa-born lawyer Stella Moris, while at the embassy. His protracted stay in the mission ended, however, after a new government in Quito turned him over to British police in April He was arrested for jumping bail and jailed.
Swedish prosecutors had dropped the rape investigation, saying in that despite a "credible" account from the alleged victim there was insufficient evidence to proceed. But as Assange had feared, it was then revealed that Washington was charging him with violating the US Espionage Act over the leaks. His supporters, who include the Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei and the fashion designer Vivienne Westwood, claim the charges are politically motivated, and raised concerns about the physical and mental toll of his prolonged incarceration.
Niels Melzer, the UN special rapporteur on torture, has condemned the conditions at London's Belmarsh Prison where Assange is being held, saying the "progressively severe suffering inflicted" on him is tantamount to torture. Assange is unsustainable. The patience of Ecuador has reached its limit on the behavior of Mr. Assange's work has long been the subject of intense debate. To his supporters, the Australian hacker is a champion of free speech, to his critics, a national security threat.
Those competing legacies stem from his involvement in one of the biggest government leaks in U. The leak by Assange and WikiLeaks released classified documents on U. They also published more than , diplomatic cables, sending the Obama administration and foreign diplomats reeling. Those leaks put Manning in jail. Her sentence was commuted by President Obama.
She was released in , only to be reimprisoned in Snowden fled to Russia and was granted asylum himself. The presidential election put the spotlight back on Assange and WikiLeaks. They published damaging e-mails from the Democratic Party and Secretary Clinton's campaign, allegedly obtained by Russian hackers, prompting this reaction from then-candidate Donald Trump:.
Of course it would. Otherwise, we would be censoring it. That's our mandate. It's actually interesting to think about what media organizations wouldn't publish such material if it was given to them. We at the CIA find the celebration of entities like WikiLeaks to be both perplexing and deeply troubling, because while we do our best to quietly collect information on those who pose very real threats to our country, individuals such as Julian Assange and Edward Snowden seek to use that information to make a name for themselves.
Today, at his first court appearance, Assange entered a plea of not guilty. His extradition hearing will take place on May 2. Support Provided By: Learn more. Thursday, Nov
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