Photo: Ming Yeung / Getty Images
For: The opinion
Saturday, September 28
British court agrees with the United States and rules that Julian Assange can be extradited
United States won an appeal 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 suicide risk .
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 dictated that he can be extradited.
“There is no which is why this court should not accept the guarantees that they say you will have. There is no basis to suppose that the United States has not given the guarantees in good faith ”, dictates the court’s ruling.
The magistrate Timothy Holroyde indicated that the case will now be returned to the trial judge Vanessa Baraitser -who denied on January 4 delivery- so that she in turn refers it to the Minister of the Interior, Priti Patel , in order for him to order extradition.
Holroyde further ordered that Assange, by 50 years, he will continue to be detained in the London high security prison of Belmarsh, where he is serving preventive detention until terminate this process, which can still be appealed by the defense.
USA offers guarantees
In the opinion, signed by Holroyde and his colleague Ian Burnett – that this Friday could not be present at the brief hearing-, the judges consider that Baraitser, of the Westminster Magistrates Court, should have informed the United States Justice in advance that he planned to block the extradition so that he could present guarantees on the prison regime that would apply to the accused.
Assange, who was not in court, denies having committed any crime.
During the trial of the 27 and the 28 of October, the prosecutor James Lewis, representing the United States Justice, guaranteed that, if extradited, the journalist will not be subjected to “special administrative measures” (SAM, in English), such as having visits or correspondence banned , 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 – he later did something to deserve it.
Lawyers will file an appeal
In addition, Washington promises that, while in custody, Assange would receive appropriate psychological treatment and, in case of conviction, you could serve it in your native country of Australia .
The United States claims the Australian to to judge him by 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 accusations, which says that p They can carry up to 175 years in prison , they are politically motivated and, if they end in conviction, it would be a catastrophic precedent for press freedom.
Stella Moris Assange’s fiancée called the decision a “serious judicial error” , and announced that the lawyers will file an appeal as soon as possible.
With information from agencies.
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