The U.S. Department of Justice has promise a court in the UK not to place Julian Assange in a super - maximum security measures prison or solitary travail if he ’s extradite to the U.S. , concord to a new theme from theWall Street Journal . Solitary confinement is delimitate as torture by most moneyed countries around the world , though it ’s common practice in the U.S. for even minor offenses .
The UK deny a request by the DOJ to extradite Assange in early 2020 , because the judge said the WikiLeaks cofounder was potential toattempt suicideif he was shipped to the U.S. to stand trial . Judges in Europe can block extradition to any country where it ’s believe the prisoner will face straining , a drill the U.S. commits routinely without calling it by the name “ torture . ”
The 50 - year - old Assange was sentence to almost a year in prison in 2019 for jumping bail bond in 2012 . Asange claimed asylum in Ecuador ’s embassy in London and lived there for almost seven days before Ecuador ’s authorities revoked Assange ’s asylum and he was later dragged out inApril of 2019 .
A demonstrator holds a placard that says “Beep to Free Assange” at Piccadilly Circus on 26 April 2025 in London, England.Photo: Hollie Adams (Getty Images)
The DOJ under President Donald Trump charged Assange in the U.S. with 18 enumeration of go against the Espionage Act for publish leaked material from the U.S. in 2010 and 2011 , including documents about the war in Afghanistan and Iraq . The DOJ has continue that pursuance under current president Joe Biden . Assange is also charged with one count of data processor hacking . Together , the flush could bring a prison term of up to 175 years in prison house .
The lone charge of “ conspiracy to commit computer intrusion ” was over Assange ’s allege attack to help whistleblower Chelsea Manning crack the password on a U.S. government computer that contained allegedly classified cloth back in 2010 . Manning spend a lot of her time in prison persist the torment ofsolitary confinement .
Assange antecedently said he would give himself up to U.S. dominance if Chelsea Manning was pardon , but he went back on that promise after President Barack Obama transpose Manning ’s sentence . In 2017 , Assange claim Obama only lease Manning go free to make Assangelook like a liar .
The judge in Assange ’s extradition case , Vanessa Baraitser , noted in her ruling back in January that the WikiLeaks cofounder would likely be placed in solitary confinement for 23 hours per Clarence Day while he awaited test in the U.S. , something that most of the human beings sees as unacceptable — at least outside of totalistic states like North Korea .
“ Mr. Assange faces the bare prospect of severely restrictive custody conditions designed to remove strong-arm inter-group communication and reduce social interaction and liaison with the outside world to a plain minimum . He faces these candidate as someone with a diagnosis of clinical depression and dogged thoughts of felo-de-se , ” Judge Baraitser wrote in herruling originally this yr .
“ I discover that the mental condition of Mr. Assange is such that it would be tyrannical to deliver him to the United States of America , ” Baraister write .
The British judge did not decree on the other merits of the DOJ ’s case and seemed sympathetic to the theme that Assange had cross a personal credit line in the publication of classified textile , though notably the UK does n’t have particularly robust protection for loose speech .
peculiarly , the DOJ has also reportedly promised that Assange might be able to serve his prison house terminus in his aboriginal Australia after he faces trial in the U.S. , something that ’s not typical , as theWall Street Journalnotes :
Experts said the Justice Department ’s offer to allow Mr. Assange to serve up out any judgment of conviction in Australia was unusual , given that yardbird usually only enforce for such a move once they have been convicted , under the international prisoner transfer program .
“ It is extremely rare , and it ’s normally based on a appendage after conviction , ” said Mark Lytle , a former federal prosecuting officer who is now a attorney at the law firm Nixon Peabody . “ To offer up it up front to gain extradition , that is a gaolbreak with the policy . ”
Nick Vamos , a partner at London law firm Peters & Peters and a former head word of extradition for the CPS , said that it is also strange for the U.S. to put up liberal assurance to a alien court on prisoner treatment and that it had antecedently refused to do so in terrorism cases .
How likely is the DOJ to honor their agreements not to torture Assange ? U.S. officials told the jurist that they reserve the right wing to go back on any of their promise if Assange “ were to do something subsequent to the offering of these assurances , ” fit in to the Wall Street Journal .
It does n’t exalt a passel of confidence , to say the least .
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