Citing Flight Risk, UK Judge Bars Bail for Assange After Rejecting Extradition

British Judge Vanessa Baraitser, who turned down a United States request to extradite jailed WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to face espionage charges for revealing state secrets, denied him bail at the January 6 hearing, saying he was a flight risk.

He will be kept in harsh conditions in London's notorious Belmarsh Prison while the US appeals the extradition ruling. She had said sending him to the US was a suicide risk because of his poor mental health and restrictive prison measures.

Assange, who spent more than eight years either in the Ecuadorean embassy in London under asylum or in jail, wanted to be freed after a split ruling in which the judge rejected his lawyer's arguments he was acting as a journalist.

“I am satisfied that there are substantial grounds for believing that if Mr. Assange is released today he would fail to surrender to court to face the appeal proceedings,” she told London’s Westminster Magistrates Court, said Reuters.

“As far as Mr Assange is concerned this case has not yet been won ... the outcome of this appeal is not yet known,” she said, an ominous warning his fate will be unknown for some time.

He has been held at Belmarsh since being arrested in April 2019 after his asylum was taken away and British police removed him. He skipped bail in 2012 when Sweden wanted him on rape charges since dropped.

Assange's partner, Stella Moris, said the decision was “a huge disappointment.” WikiLeaks spokesman Kristinn Hrafnsson said "it is inhumane. It is illogical.”

The US Department of Justice said it won't give up the fight for his extradition to face 18 criminal charges of breaking an espionage law and conspiring with whistleblower and former Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning to hack government computers, which he denied.

Clair Dobbin, a lawyer representing the US, said Assange had a pattern of trying to escape prosecution and would likely try to leave the UK if granted bail.

“This court should be in no doubt as to Mr Assange’s resources, abilities and sheer wherewithal to arrange flight to another country,” Dobbin said.

She said that the extradition request had been denied “on a single ground, that of his mental health. It is a decision that hangs on a single thread.”

Assange's lawyer, Edward Fitzgerald, said the judge's decision to refuse extradition “massively reduces” any motivation to abscond.

"Mr. Assange has every reason to stay in this jurisdiction where he has the protection of the rule of law and this court’s decision," he said.

The judge earlier said Assange’s actions, if proven, would amount to offenses “that would not be protected by his right to freedom of speech,” after the US had previously said journalists were not precluded from prosecution under The Espionage Act, although media outlets which published WikiLeaks findings are not being pursued.

She also said the US judicial system would give him a fair trial but his supporters feared a fix. Fitzgerald said he would be safer at home with his partner and children while the appeals process went on.

The process, however, will likely take months with a backlog of cases because of the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdowns. If the US loses again, it could appeal to the UK Supreme Court, which would mean longer delays and more prison time for the 49-year-old Australian.

What especially riled the US was the 2010 publication by WikiLeaks of a classified U.S. military video showing a 2007 attack by Apache helicopters that killed a dozen people in Baghdad, including two Reuters news staff.

WikiLeaks had also published hundreds of thousands of secret US diplomatic cables critical of world leaders, from Russian President Vladimir Putin to members of the Saudi royal family, embarrassing the American government.

But then-US President Barack Obama didn't push for prosecution and current President Donald Trump, said Assange's supporters, wanted to get the WikiLeaks founder.

After initial reluctance, a number of journalist groups rallied around Assange, fearing they could be targeted if he's prosecuted for doing the work of investigative reporters.

Rebecca Vincent, Director of International Campaigns at NGO Reporters without Borders called the court's decision to refuse bail "unnecessarily cruel."