(London, U.K.) Julian Assange will remain imprisoned at H.M.P. Belmarsh until the conclusion of appeal proceedings, a British judge ruled at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday.
District Judge Vanessa Baraitser ruled to refuse his extradition to the United States on grounds it would be “oppressive” to his mental health earlier in the week, but failed to go a step further to grant the WikiLeaks publisher his liberty — albeit constrained — given his past history of absconding.
After representations from Clair Dobbin QC for the prosecution and Edward Fitzgerald QC on behalf of the defence, Baraitser said: “On Monday, I ordered Mr Assange’s discharge on the basis extradition would be oppressive in light of his mental health, pursuant to Section 91 of the Extradition Act of 2003, but the United States have already lodged their appeal against this decision — as is their right — and as far as Mr Assange is concerned, this case has not yet been won.
“Notwithstanding Mr Fitzgerald’s observation that there is little or no precedent for the High Court overturning a favourable ruling granting discharge on Section 91 grounds, the outcome of this appeal is not yet known.”
She added: “As a matter of fairness, the United States must be allowed to challenge my decision. If Mr Assange absconds during this process, then they will have lost the opportunity to do so.
“Mr Assange has already demonstrated that he has been willing to flout the order of this court. The stringent conditions previously imposed upon him did nothing to prevent this.”
Baraitser further outlined how Assange had ample resources and support to flee the U.K. if he so chose, citing the assistance he provided to Edward Snowden to evade U.S. authorities in Hong Kong before helping him board a flight to Russia, and stated she was satisfied with the handling of the Covid-19 pandemic at H.M.P. Belmarsh where he will remain incarcerated.
“Therefore,” Baraitser concluded, “notwithstanding the package of conditions offered on [Mr Assange’s] behalf, I’m satisfied that there are substantial grounds to believing that if Mr Assange is released today, he would fail to surrender to court to face the appeal proceedings.
“The remand, therefore, is in custody.”
The ruling came in spite of Fitzgerald’s assertion that Assange had every intention of remaining in the U.K. to fight the U.S. appeal, given that British due process was now his best protection against U.S. prosecution.
“The court’s ruling, we say, further removes or at least massively reduces any incentive to abscond, which is the main reason for the court’s earlier decision not to grant bail,” Fitzgerald said.
“Put simply, we say, Mr Assange now has every reason to stay in this jurisdiction where he has the protection of the rule of law and this court’s decision, and therefore every reason to abide by bail conditions — however stringent — imposed by the court.”
Baraitser’s decision, however, meant Assange will this month serve his twenty-second month at H.M.P. Belmarsh since British officers arrested the publisher in April 2019 — making it his fifteenth month held solely for the basis of the U.S. extradition request.
It is yet to be known how long an appeals process would be set to last in this case, but human rights monitors such as Amnesty International have already stated Assange’s confinement is a continuation of his “arbitrary detention” — a finding that the U.N. Working Group on Arbitrary Detention reached as early as 2015.
The case continues.