Activist calls for Assange release on bail

Описание: (6 Jan 2021) A British judge is set to decide Wednesday whether WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange will be released from the prison where he has been held for more than a year and a half as he fights extradition to the United States.
Assange has been detained at London’s high-security Belmarsh Prison since April 2019, when he was arrested for skipping bail during a separate legal battle seven years earlier.
Rebecca Vincent, Director of International Campaigns for Reporters Without Borders, said she did not know what to expect from Wednesday's hearing but hoped he would be released on bail due to risks to his physical and mental health.
Vincent said her organisation fully believed Assange had been targetted for his contributions to journalism.
District Judge Vanessa Baraitser was presiding over a bail hearing at Westminster Magistrates' Court, two days after she rejected an American request to send Assange to the U.S. to face espionage charges over WikiLeaks’ publication of secret military documents a decade ago.
The judge denied extradition on health grounds, saying the 49-year-old Australian was likely to kill himself if held under harsh U.S. prison conditions.
Lawyers for the U.S. government say they will appeal the decision, and the U.S. Department of Justice says it will continue to seek Assange’s extradition.

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