Judge to rule on U. S. extradition request for Assange

LONDON — WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange will learn Monday whether he can be extradited from the U. K. to the U. S. to face espionage charges over the publication of secret American military documents.

District Judge Vanessa Baraitser is due to deliver her decision at London’s Old Bailey courthouse at 10 a. m. If she grants the request, then Britain’s home secretary, Priti Patel, will make the final decision.

Whichever side loses is expected to appeal, which could lead to years more legal wrangling. However, there’s a possibility that outside forces may end the decadelong saga.

Stella Moris, Assange’s partner and the mother of his two sons, has appealed to President Trump via Twitter to grant a pardon to Assange before he leaves office on Jan. 20. Even if Trump doesn’t, there’s speculation that his successor, Joe Biden, may take a more lenient approach to Assange’s extradition process.

U. S. prosecutors indicted Assange, 49, on 17 espionage charges and one charge of computer misuse that carry a maximum sentence of 175 years in prison.

Assange’s defense team argued that he is entitled to First Amendment protections for the publication of leaked documents that exposed U. S. military wrongdoing in Iraq and Afghanistan and that the U. S. extradition request was politically motivated.

In their written closing arguments, Assange’s legal team accused the U. S. of an “extraordinary, unprecedented and politicized” prosecution that constitutes “a flagrant denial of his right to freedom of expression and poses a fundamental threat to the freedom of the press throughout the world.”

Defense lawyers also said Assange was suffering from wideranging mental health issues, including suicidal tendencies, that could be exacerbated if he is imprisoned in the U. S.

They said his mental health deteriorated while he took asylum inside the Ecuadorian Embassy

in London for years and that he was diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder. Assange jumped bail in 2012 when he sought asylum at the embassy, where he stayed for seven years before being evicted and arrested. He has been held at Belmarsh prison in London since April 2019.

Lawyers for the U. S. argued that Assange’s mental state “is patently not so severe so as to preclude extradition.”