A court in Great Britain today decided that the founder of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, will not be extradited to the United States of America (USA), agencies report.
As the BBC reports, the court rejected the US request due to concerns about Assange's mental health and the risk that he could commit suicide in the US.
Judge Vanessa Bericer said today it would be "oppressive" given his mental state and that Assange was likely to commit suicide if sent to the US.
The US government said it would appeal the decision.
The US wants to try him for espionage after publishing hundreds of thousands of classified documents.
For his supporters, the 49-year-old Assange has become a symbol of the fight for freedom of information.
The court's decision can be appealed.
The US has requested the extradition of Assange, who faces a total of 18 counts of the US indictment, and if he is convicted of espionage and treason for publishing secret state documents about US military and diplomatic activities, especially in Iraq and Afghanistan, he faces a maximum prison sentence of 175 years.
The US blames him for putting US intelligence sources at risk, which he disputes.
Among the documents he released was a video showing civilians killed by US helicopter gunfire in Iraq in July 2007, including two Reuters journalists.
Lawyers for the 49-year-old Assange, an Australian citizen, say he acted as a journalist and had First Amendment rights to free speech for publishing leaked documents that exposed US military misconduct in Iraq and Afghanistan. On April 11, 2019, the founder of WikiLeaks was kicked out of the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where he took refuge in 2012, and was immediately arrested by the British police.
During the five-week trial in February and September, Julian Assange's lawyers denounced a "political" process based on "lies."
It remains to be seen what the future US President Joe Biden's attitude will be towards the WikiLeaks founder.
Assange was prosecuted under the presidency of Donald Trump.
During the time of Trump's predecessor Barack Obama, whose vice president Biden was, the American courts gave up on the prosecution of Assange.
However, 10 years ago, Biden compared Assange to a "high-tech terrorist".
Lawyer Stella Morris, with whom Assange has two children, said in an interview with the German newspaper Der Spiegel on Sunday that none of his lawyers have appeared at London's high-security Belmarsh prison, where he is being held, since March.
She said Assange's defense was "severely handicapped."
"But the situation in Belmarsh prison is nothing compared to the prison conditions he will be subjected to in the US if he is extradited," she said, assessing that Assange would then be "buried alive".
Kristin Hrafnson, editor-in-chief of WikiLeaks, told AFP yesterday that it was "almost certain" that the court would rule against Assange and denounced bias in the proceedings.
In a statement released this weekend, he assessed that the very fact that this case was brought to court and that it lasted for so long represents a historic, high-level attack on freedom of expression.
During the five-week trial in February and September, Julian Assange's lawyers denounced a "political" process based on "lies."
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