London, Dec 10, (PA Media/dpa/GNA) – The US government won its legal bid to overturn a judge’s decision not to extradite WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, from Britain at the High Court in London on Friday.
Assange, 50, is wanted in the United States on charges of alleged conspiracy to obtain and disclose national defense information, following WikiLeaks’ publication of hundreds of thousands of leaked documents relating to the Afghanistan and Iraq wars.
US authorities brought a High Court challenge against a January ruling by then-district judge, Vanessa Baraitser, that Assange should not be sent to the US in which she cited a real and “oppressive” risk of suicide.
After a two-day hearing in October, Lord Chief Justice Lord Burnett, sitting with Lord Justice Holroyde, ruled in favour of the US on Friday. The senior judges found that the judge had based her decision on the risk of Assange being held in highly restrictive prison conditions if extradited.
GNA