Nishka Srinivas Veluvali –
Published On: December 10, 2021 at 20:56 IST
On Friday, 10 December, the British Appellate Court agreed to hand over Julian Assange to the United States by overlooking the Order of the Lower Court.
The Lower Court denied the extradition of Assange after they found that his mental health was too sensitive to withstand the American Criminal Justice System.
The High Court in London stated that the US assurances were enough to assure that Assange would be treated humanely and ordered the Lower Court to forward the extradition request to the home secretary for review.
The final say to whether extradite Assange would lie in the hands of the Home Secretary, who looks after the Law Enforcement in the U.K.
The Lower Court Judge had this year already rejected the American request to extradite Julian Assange to go through the law under the spying charges over WikiLeaks’ publication of secret military documents a decade ago.
District Judge Vanessa Baraitser rejected the request to extradite Assange on the basis of his health, stating that he is likely to kill himself if kept under tough and harsh prison conditions in the U.S
Challenging the health notion, Lawyer James Lewis stated that Assange has no history of serious health issues or enduring mental health illness and does not come into the arena of being so ill enough to kill him.
U.S authorities assured the British Judges that if they hand over Assange to the US, then he will be allowed to serve his US prison sentence in his native Australia.
U.S has indicted Julian Assange on 17 espionage charges and one charge of misusage of computer on the WikiLeaks Publication that leaked confidential and diplomatic documents related to military. The sentence given for the charges would be of 175 years in prison.
At present Assange aged 50 is kept in London’s high-security Belmarsh prison.