His lawyer has expressed her concern for Julian Assange's life if his final appeal against his extradition from Britain to the US is rejected. As he typically said, if he is extradited to the United States, he may kill himself.
Julian Assange is wanted in the United States on charges of an alleged conspiracy to obtain and disclose national defense information following the release of hundreds of thousands of leaked documents relating to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. He denies any guilt.
Assange, 52, has spent the past four years in London's Belmars prison, where he has been held since authorities dragged him out of the Ecuadorian embassy, fighting to avoid US extradition efforts.
“His life is in danger and I'm not exaggerating about that”
Assange's lawyer Jennifer Robinson, who is an international human rights lawyer, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation: “As a result of the 13 years he has been effectively in prison or under house arrest or some form of restriction of liberty inside the Ecuadorian embassy, (Julian Assange) is really not well.”
“Because of the treatment he suffered, he suffers from major depressive illness, he was diagnosed within the spectrum of depressive disorders, and the medical evidence is that if he is extradited to the United States, those conditions will cause him to kill himself,” he added.
“So his life is in danger and I'm not exaggerating about that,” he said, as reported by the Athens News Agency, citing dpa.
In her decision in January 2021, then-District Judge Vanessa Barrecher had declared that Assange should not be sent to the US, citing a real and “pressing” risk of suicide, while she had ruled against the 51-year-old on all other issues.
But US authorities subsequently successfully appealed that decision, paving the way for Assange's extradition.
Last June, Assange lost his appeal against a judge's decision on whether he should be extradited, but his final appeal against the ruling will come in February.
Robinson said: “We have our final extradition appeal in February and if we fail, if they don't give us permission to appeal, that will be the end of the road in the UK and it will be extradited.”
“We hope that the European Court of Human Rights will intervene. We will make a request to the European Court to try to stop (his extradition), but that is not guaranteed.”
Last year there were several protests in the UK in support of Assange, including by former British ambassador to Uzbekistan Craig Murray, who said Assange's supporters “will never stop fighting” for his freedom.
Assange's wife, Stella, said last year that “the stakes are very high.”
According to her, “they are high on all sides, not only for Julian's life and his freedom, but for all the freedoms of the press and the rights of free speech that go with them.”
Source: News Beast
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