Extradition

Two judges at the Royal Courts of Justice in London on Wednesday sided with the United States to allow it to appeal the judgement by District Judge Vanessa Baraitser in January that Julian Assange was at too high a risk of suicide to be extradited to the United States. The U.S. on July 5 was granted the right to appeal the decision not to extradite but not on the grounds of Assange’s health. That was reversed on Wednesday. The U.S. now has the right to argue that the testimony of the defense’s key expert witness on suicide, Prof. Michael Kopelman, should be deemed inadmissible or granted little weight because Kopelman concealed from the court that he knew Assange had had two children with his partner, the lawyer Stella Moris.

Writing on his blog two days after District Court Judge Vanessa Baraitser on Jan. 4 in London denied the U.S. request to extradite WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange (on the grounds of his health and U.S. prison conditions that put him at extreme risk of suicide), former British diplomat Craig Murray made a prescient remark in light of what we know now: “I am not sure that at this stage the High Court would accept a new guarantee from the USA that Assange would not be kept in isolation or in a Supermax prison; that would be contrary to the affidavit from Assistant U.S. Attorney Gordon Kromberg and thus would probably be ruled to amount to new evidence.” Indeed on Wednesday, just as Murray suspected, the U.S., in its application for appeal to the High Court in London to overturn the decision not to extradite, promised not to put Assange under Special Administrative Measures [SAMS], or extreme isolation, and that if convicted, he could serve his potential life sentence in a more humane prison in his native Australia.