British Courts Deny US Requests To Extradite Wiki Leaks Julian Assange

Wiki Leaks founder Julian Assange has been a wanted man by the United States for over a decade

Julian Assange, the founder and political activist of WikiLeaks gained international attention with the massive dumping of government cables provided by former Army Intelligence Chelsea Manning.

These leaks included the Baghdad airstrike Collateral Murder video (April 2010), the Afghanistan war logs (July 2010), the Iraq war logs (October 2010), and Cablegate (November 2010). After the 2010 leaks, the United States government launched a criminal investigation into WikiLeaks. (Wikipedia)

The US Government filed and extradition request with the British courts for the founder of Wikileaks. “It is alleged that as a result of the Wikileaks publications, hundreds of people were identified by US forces as being “at risk”: some were relocated; some have “disappeared” (although the US cannot prove that their disappearance was the result of being outed by WikiLeaks); and some have been arrested or investigated by the countries in which they live.”

In her ruling, Judge Vanessa Baraitser said “I find that Mr Assange’s risk of committing suicide, if an extradition order were to be made, to be substantial.

The overall impression is of a depressed and sometimes despairing man, who is genuinely fearful about his future. I find that the mental condition of Mr. Assange is such that it would be oppressive to extradite him to the United States of America.

Assange has successfully fought extradition to the US several times and to Sweeden and it will likely not be his last.

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