UK court to hear bail plea for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange after blocking extradition

Lawyers for Julian Assange will, on January 6, argue that he should be released from a British prison on bail. The new date of hearing follows Washington’s call to appeal against UK district judge Vanessa Baraitser’s verdict that the Wikileaks founder should not be extradited to the United States. The case of  Assange, who was arrested for publishing classified documents of US military amongst other things, has become of the biggest cases related to freedom of the press.

In her ruling, Baraitser blocked Assange’s extradition assessing he was at a high suicide risk if transferred. But, the verdict was opposed by Washington which argued that it was “extremely disappointing". In addendum, the Trump administration said that it would appeal for his bail and has two weeks to lodge its grounds. Assange was arrested in 2019 and has remained in the high-security Belmarsh prison in London pending the latest hearing, at Westminster Magistrates' Court in central London. Previously, in March, he had appealed for bail on the pretext of catching coronavirus behind bars. However, his argument was ruled out on grounds that he was likely to abscond. 

Read: Edward Snowden Pleads Donald Trump To 'free Julian Assange' Before Leaving White House

Read: WikiLeaks' Julian Assange Should Not Be Extradited To The United States, UK Court Rules

Julian Assange's case

The 48-year-old currently imprisoned in Belmarsh is slapped with 18 charges in the United States including under the Espionage Act, for "conspiring" to gain access to US military secrets between January and May 2010. If convicted, he will face up to 175 years in US prison. Wikileaks, an anti-secrecy organisation, was founded 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. Ever since its launch in 2006, Wikileaks has published thousands of classified documents, disclosing the details from national security, war, politics to the film industry. Assange is accused of conspiring with hackers affiliated to “Anonymous” and “LulzSec” to obtain classified information, as per US Justice Department's updated indictment.

Assange's defence team states that he is a journalist and entitled to First Amendment protections for publishing leaked documents that exposed U.S. military wrongdoing in Iraq and Afghanistan. They also say that the conditions he would face in a U.S. prison would breach his human rights. Assange jumped bail in 2012 and sought asylum at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, which ended up becoming his home for seven years before he was evicted and subsequently arrested. He has been in a London prison since April 2019.

Read: Julian Assange's Partner Hails UK Blocking His Extradition; Mexico Offers Political Asylum

Read: WikiLeaks' Julian Assange Should Not Be Extradited To The United States, UK Court Rules