After extradition relief, British court turns down bail for Assange

On a protest by the Hazara minority group over the killing of 11 miners by the Islamic State terrorists

LONDON: A British court on Wednesday refused a bail application moved by Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, two days after an extradition request by the US government was blocked on grounds of his mental health and risk of suicide.

Assange, 49, has been held in the Belmarsh prison in southeast London for the past 18 months after he was evicted from the Ecuadorian embassy, where he sought asylum for seven years.

His earlier bail applications were also refused.

His legal team moved another application after the extradition was blocked on Monday. US authorities have indicated that they would appeal against the extradition ruling. He is wanted in the US to face charges of espionage, hacking and leaking classified documents.

Judge Vanessa Baraitser of the Westminster Magistrates Court in London ruled that “there are substantial grounds for believing that if Mr. Assange is released today, he would fail to surrender to court and face the appeal proceedings”, as his supporters gathered in rain outside the court.

Assange’s lawyers emphasised that he has new family ties in the UK with two children he had fathered with his partner, Stella Moris, and that he would be bailed to the couple’s home address. But the judge did not accept the arguments.

Assange has been detained at London’s high-security Belmarsh prison since April 2019, when he was arrested for skipping bail during a separate legal battle seven years earlier.

Clair Dobbin, a British lawyer acting for the US, said Assange had shown that he would go “to almost any length” to avoid extradition to America, and it was likely that he would flee if granted bail.