‘He’s not feeling well’: Julian Assange absent from extradition hearing

The audience in his absence. The Wikileaks founder will not be present in the British court on Tuesday due to his poor health, according to lawyer Julian Assange. This Tuesday, the 52-year-old Australian is filing his final appeal against his extradition to the United States, which wants to try him for the massive leak of documents. “He is not feeling well today and is not available,” his lawyer Edward Fitzgerald told the High Court in London.

As the hearing approached, his supporters warned of the risks facing the man, who has been detained for nearly five years in the United Kingdom in a case that has become a symbol of threats to press freedom.

“We don’t know what to expect, but you are here because the world is watching,” said Stella Assange, wife of the Wikileaks founder, calling for continued protests “until Julian is free.” “Julian needs freedom, and we all need freedom,” she said.

She told the BBC on Monday that she feared a quick extradition if Julian Assange did not use the last resort, but hoped the European Court of Human Rights could intervene in time.

In January 2021, British justice initially ruled in favor of the Wikileaks founder. Citing the risk of suicide, Judge Vanessa Baraitser refused to give the green light for extradition. But later this decision was reversed.

“Alcatraz in the Rocky Mountains”

In an attempt to reassure him about how he would be treated, the United States confirmed that he would not be incarcerated at the maximum security ADX prison in Florence, Colorado, nicknamed the “Alcatraz of the Rockies,” and that he would receive the clinical and psychological care he needed. The Americans also suggested that he might ask to serve his sentence in Australia.

These guarantees convinced the British justice system, but not Julian Assange’s supporters, who condemn political persecution.

Julian Assange faces up to 175 years in prison. He is being prosecuted for publishing more than 700,000 confidential documents since 2010 about American military and diplomatic activities, particularly in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Among them was video showing civilians, including two Reuters journalists, killed in a July 2007 US helicopter gunship in Iraq.

These documents were obtained thanks to American soldier Chelsea Manning. Sentenced in August 2013 to 35 years in prison by a military tribunal, she was released seven years later after Barack Obama commuted her sentence.