WikiLeaks' Julian Assange should not be extradited to the United States, UK court rules

In a major reprieve for the jailed Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, UK district judge Vanessa Baraitser on Monday, held that Assange should not be extradited to the United States, according to Reuters. The verdict comes following a three-week extradition hearing in London’s Central Criminal Court. If extradited, Assange may have faced a maximum sentence of 175 years in prison as U.S. prosecutors have indicted Assange on 17 espionage charges and one charge of computer misuse.

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Assange not be extradited to US: UK court

Assange's extradition trial

Lawyers for the 49-year-old Australian argue that he was acting as a journalist and is entitled to First Amendment protections of freedom of speech for publishing leaked documents that exposed U.S. military wrongdoing in Iraq and Afghanistan. Lawyers for the U.S. government deny that Assange is being prosecuted merely for publishing the leaked documents, saying the case “is in large part based upon his unlawful involvement” in the theft of the diplomatic cables and military files by U.S. Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning. Assange who was arrested in London after Ecuador evicted him from their London Embassy in April 2019, with the British police immediately arresting him for jumping bail.

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Assange's legal troubles are not limited to US. In 2010, he was arrested in London at the request of Sweden to question him about allegations of rape and sexual assault made by two women. In 2012, to avoid being sent to Sweden, Assange sought refuge inside the Ecuadorian Embassy, where he was beyond the reach of U.K. and Swedish authorities. While Sweden dropped the sex crimes investigations in November 2019 because so much time had elapsed, Assange was taken to Belmarsh Prison for 'jumping bail'. Assange’s partner, Stella Moris, who had two sons with him while he lived in the embassy, has appealed to President Donald Trump to pardon Assange before Trump leaves office on Jan. 20.

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What did Julian Assange do?

Assange founded Wikileaks, an anti-secrecy organisation, in 2006 as a platform for whistleblowers to release classified information anonymously. By 2015, Wikileaks became a portal to publish over 10 million documents, including top-secret documents. He invited the US government's ire when Wikileaks published thousands of documents leaked by former US Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning - relating to the war in Afghanistan, revealing how the US military had killed hundreds of civilians in unreported incidents, according to BBC. Among the leaks were more than 250,000 messages sent by US diplomats and documents which revealed that 66,000 civilians had been killed in the Iraq War. Wikileaks was also responsible for publishing thousands of hacked emails from the account of Hillary Clinton's campaign boss John Podesta, in the run-up to the 2016 US Presidential elections - which ultimately caused her the elections.

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(With AP Inputs)