In a big setback for the USA, UK Court on Monday refused to grant the extradition of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. An extradition hearing was opened at the Old Bailey courthouse in London against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. The 49-year-old, who spent almost seven years in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, faces an 18-count indictment from US authorities accusing him of recruiting hackers to steal military secrets.
Denying extradition of Assange, District Judge Vanessa Baraitser said, "Assange faces the bleak prospect of severely restrictive detention conditions designed to remove physical contact and reduce social interaction and contact with the outside world to a bare minimum".
"He faces these prospects as someone with a diagnosis of clinical depression and persistent thoughts of suicide," she said in her ruling. "I am satisfied that the risk that Mr. Assange will commit suicide is a substantial one."
On Monday, Assange, who sat behind a glass security screen at the back of the court, was formally re-arrested on a new American indictment which updated and broadened previous charges, brought mostly under the US Espionage Act.
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A 200-page submission by Assange's lawyer Edward Fitzgerald asserted that the prosecution was being pursued for ulterior political motives and not in good faith.
Fitzgerald said in the submission: "The request seeks extradition for what is a classic 'political offence'. Extradition for a political offence is expressly prohibited by Article 4(1) of the Anglo-U.S. extradition treaty.
"Therefore, it constitutes an abuse of this court's process to require this court to extradite on the basis of the Anglo-US treaty in breach of the treaty's express provisions."
Assange faces a prison term of up to 175 years in the US if he is found guilty over the publication of secret intelligence and military documents.
WITH INPUTS FROM IANS