After £16m UK police bill and 12 years in hiding, WikiLeaks founder faces extradition to US
JULIAN Assange lost his 12-year bid to avoid extradition yesterday as Priti Patel approved an order for him to be sent to the US.
The WikiLeaks founder faces 18 charges over leaked documents published in 2010 and 2011 relating to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as diplomatic cables.
Assange, 50, has 14 days to appeal against the order.
His lawyer Jennifer Robinson said the case could be taken to the European Court of Human Rights – which blocked Home Office plans to transfer migrants to Rwanda earlier this week.
The Australian’s wife said he will be driven to suicide if he’s taken to the US
‘Conditions will be so oppressive’
over the espionage charges. Stella Assange, 37, described the decision as a ‘dark day for press freedom and British democracy’ as she tearfully vowed to use ‘every waking hour’ to fight for his freedom.
Assange’s stay in the UK is thought to have cost £16million in policing and other expenses since he moved into the Ecuadorian Embassy in 2012. He was trying to avoid extradition for sex assault claims made in Sweden in 2010. He denied the accusations – which were later dropped – but claimed he had always feared that if he had been extradited to Sweden it would have ultimately led to him being sent to the US.
Scotland Yard’s bill alone came to more than £12.5million – £9,000 for every day officers spent watching the embassy from 2012 to 2015.
US officials have made assurances that he would not be held in the maximum security ADX Florence prison in Florida and that if convicted he could serve a prison sentence in his native Australia.
But Assange’s team believe if he is extradited these promises will be broken and he will spend the rest of his life in solitary confinement. Mr and Mrs Assange married in a ceremony in HMP Belmarsh in March.
She said her husband’s health has been deteriorating daily and he suffered a mini-stroke at the prison last October, where he has been for three years since he was taken out of the Ecuadorian Embassy, where he had lived since 2012.
‘If he is extradited to the US the conditions will be so oppressive that it will drive him to take his own life,’ she added.
‘This is not simply a discussion about his mental health – we are talking about driving a person to take his own life.’
Amnesty International secretary general Agnes Callamard said the Home Secretary’s decision sent a ‘chilling message to journalists the world over’, adding: ‘If the extradition proceeds, Amnesty International is extremely concerned Assange faces a high risk of prolonged solitary confinement, which would violate the prohibition on torture or other ill treatment.
A Home Office spokesman said: ‘The UK courts have not found that it would be oppressive, unjust or an abuse of process to extradite Mr Assange.’