LONDON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 04th January, 2021) Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and the National Union of Journalists of the United Kingdom and Ireland (NUJ) have called for an immediate release of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on the back of the UK court saving him from extradition to the United States on espionage charges.
Earlier in the day, UK district judge Vanessa Baraitser ruled against the investigative journalist's extradition, citing health reasons and suicide risks. Currently in the Belmarsh high-security prison, Assange could face a 175-year prison sentence if extradited. US prosecutors were given two weeks to appeal the verdict.
"We urge judge to grant bail without any further delay as [Assange] faces serious health risks at Belmarsh prison now with COVID-19 infection sharply on the rise in his prison bloc. If anything happens to him ... it is fully the UK legal and moral responsibility, so we call again for his immediate release," RSF Director of International Campaigns Rebecca Vincent said, speaking outside the court.
NUJ General Secretary Michelle Stanistreet, while welcoming the ruling, pointed out that its reasoning left the door open for governments to continue persecuting investigative journalists for veracious reporting on important security matters.
"Given his lengthy period of incarceration, it is surely also time to grant Assange bail so that he can join his young family," Stanistreet said.
Amnesty International also raised the question of infringement on media freedom in the UK and the US in its reaction to the whistleblower's non-extradition ruling.
"We welcome the fact that Julian Assange will not be sent to the USA, but this does not absolve the UK from having engaged in this politically-motivated process at the behest of the USA and putting media freedom and freedom of expression on trial," the watchdog said on Twitter.
Assange's extradition trial ended at London's Old Bailey court on October 1 after his defense team spent four weeks trying to prove that Assange was being indicted for politically-motivated reasons.
In 2010, WikiLeaks released the largest leak of classified information in history, consisting of US diplomatic cables and documents exposing the atrocities committed by US troops during military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. The United States accused Assange of obtaining the documents by conspiring with former US army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning to hack a classified government computer.
The UK police arrested Assange in April 2019. The journalist was sentenced to 50 weeks behind bars for breaching bail. People who visited him in jail described the conditions as extremely strict to the point of being harmful for his physical and psychological health.
