The Guardian…
The US is appealing to Britain’s high court over a refusal to extradite the WikiLeaks founder on espionage charges, saying he ‘has no history of serious and enduring mental illness’
US authorities have told British judges that if they agree to extradite Julian Assange on espionage charges, the WikiLeaks founder could serve any US prison sentence he receives in his native Australia.
In January, a lower UK court refused a US request to extradite Assange over WikiLeaks’ publication of secret US military documents a decade ago.
District Judge Vanessa Baraitser ruled that Assange, who has spent years in hiding and in UK prisons as he fights extradition, was likely to take his own life if held under harsh US prison conditions.
Appealing against that decision at the high court in London, a lawyer for the US government on Wednesday denied Assange’s mental health was too fragile to withstand the US judicial system.
Lawyer James Lewis said Assange “has no history of serious and enduring mental illness” and does not meet the threshold of being so ill that he cannot resist harming himself.
US prosecutors have indicted Assange on 17 espionage charges and one charge of computer misuse over WikiLeaks’ publication of thousands of leaked military and diplomatic documents.
