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<p><img src="https://themindunleashed.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/ewrewrewrwerwe.png"/></p>
<p>In a surprise ruling on Monday, British District Judge Vanessa Baraitser rejected the United States government’s request to extradite WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on espionage charges.</p>
<p>Baraitser did not object to the overall charges, but ruled that conditions in US prisons would be too harsh, and that Assange would likely kill himself if he were extradited.</p>
<p>Baraitser rejected defense arguments that the charges against Assange were politically motivated and a violation of free speech.</p>
<p><em>“I find that the mental condition of Mr. Assange is such that it would be oppressive to extradite him to the United States of America,”</em> the judge said, according to the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/julian-assange-uk-refuses-us-extradition-5b148b0b6b9f72a20eedad4218e8227a">Associated Press</a>.</p>
<p>She said that Assange was<em> “a depressed and sometimes despairing man” </em>who had the “intellect and determination” to take his own life.</p>
<p>The US government has promised to appeal the decision. At a bail hearing on Wednesday, Assange’s lawyers plan to ask for his release. Assange’s American lawyer, Barry Pollack, said the legal team was <em>“enormously gratified”</em> that he will not be extradited.</p>
<p>https://twitter.com/DEAcampaign/status/1346154649926074371</p>
<p>The US government has promised to appeal the decision. At a bail hearing on Wednesday, Assange’s lawyers plan to ask for his release. Assange’s American lawyer, Barry Pollack, said the legal team was “enormously gratified” that he will not be extradited.</p>
<p><em>“We hope that after consideration of the U.K. court’s ruling, the United States will decide not to pursue the case further,</em>” he said.</p>
<p>In court, lawyers for Assange argued that he was acting as a journalist and is entitled to First Amendment protections of freedom of speech when he published evidence of US war crimes that were deemed to be classified</p>
<p>Despite ruling to reject the extradition, the Judge essentially agreed with the complaints of US prosecutors. Saying that Assange’s actions “<em>amount to offenses in this jurisdiction that would not be protected by his right to freedom of speech.”</em></p>
<p>She also said she trusted that the US court system would give him a fair trial, while at the same time admitting that prison conditions in the US would be too harsh.</p>
<p>https://twitter.com/DEAcampaign/status/1346128785918201857</p>
<p><em>“I accept that oppression as a bar to extradition requires a high threshold. … However, I am satisfied that, in these harsh conditions, Mr. Assange’s mental health would deteriorate causing him to commit suicide with the ‘single minded determination’ of his autism spectrum disorder,</em>” the judge said in her ruling.</p>
<p>Professor Michael Kopelman, an emeritus professor of neuropsychiatry at King’s College London, said that Assange has been hearing voices and has confessed to a priest that he was making preparations to kill himself. These preparations included drafting his will and writing a goodbye letter to his family and friends.</p>
<p><em>“He reported auditory hallucinations, which were voices either inside or outside his head, somatic hallucinations, funny bodily experiences, these have now disappeared. He also has a long history of musical hallucinations, which is maybe a separate phenomenon, that got worse when he was in prison,”</em> Kopelman said.</p>
<p>The voices that Assange is hearing are saying things like <em>“you are dust, you are dead, we are coming to get you.”</em></p>
<p>Kopelman said that the most severe hallucinations have begun to diminish, but Assange is still severely depressed and at a high risk of suicide. He also added that if Assange were extradited the risk would increase further.</p>
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