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Julian Assange in the UK Court: Depression and Asperger's Syndrome
Photo: Elizabeth Cook / AP
It was twelve minutes past ten when Julian Assange, 49, was ushered out of an underground passage into the glass case opposite the bench in London's Old Bailey Criminal Court.
Like a dangerous murderer, the Australian journalist had to follow the proceedings behind bulletproof glass, which involved the US government's request to extradite him for espionage.
The face of the founder of the platform WikiLeaks was as white as his hair, he was wearing a blue suit, blue tie and a corona mask.
What the district judge Vanessa Baraitser presented then reinforced all fears with which Assange and his lawyers had looked forward to the pronouncement of the verdict.
The judge confirmed all the charges brought against the Australian journalist by a grand jury in Alexandria, Virginia, USA: Assange had instigated WikiLeaks informant Bradley Manning to divulge state secrets.
He also gave him technical advice for this.
In addition, she had "full confidence" that the Australians in the United States would expect a fair trial, said the British judge.
But then she touched on Assange's health, mentioned that he had attempted suicide in 1991, that there had been several suicides in his family.
She does not doubt the statements of psychiatrists that the Australian suffers from at least mild autism, from Asperger's syndrome and depression.
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Assange supporters cheer after the London court banned extradition
Photo: Frank Augstein / AP
In a US maximum security prison, in which human contacts are reduced to zero, there would be a serious risk that Assange could commit suicide.
Humanitarian reasons spoke against the extradition request
It was these humanitarian reasons that led the stern judge to reject the extradition request of the Donald Trump administration.
Towards the end of her oral justification of the 132-page verdict, she asked Assange's defense whether they wanted to apply for his release on bail immediately.
After a break in consultation, the lawyers stated that they wanted to prepare such an application within two days.
The judge adjourned the proceedings until Wednesday.
Even if the highly complex Assange case does not end there, the provisional denial of extradition is one of the climaxes of a complicated legal tug-of-war that began more than ten years ago: In the summer of 2010, Swedish prosecutors had an arrest warrant against Assange for a »minor case of rape «Requested.
London courts executed the resulting European arrest warrant and later agreed to extradite Assange so that he could be questioned in Stockholm.
Witness protocols were manipulated during the investigation, and the British prosecutors put pressure on the Swedish prosecutors not to discontinue the case - which happened after seven years.
Assange initially evaded his arrest in London by escaping to the Ecuadorian embassy in 2012, where he was granted asylum.
But after continued pressure from the US government, the Ecuadorian government withdrew it after years.
British police arrested Assange at the London Embassy on April 11, 2019.
On the same day, the US Department of Justice published the first indictment against the WikiLeaks founder and filed an extradition request.
In February and September of last year, the hearing took place, for which the lawyers on both sides wrote hundreds of pages of pleadings.
On the one hand, there was the question of whether the US is persecuting Assange for political reasons - which would have made extradition under British law impossible.
On the other hand, about his fragile state of health.
Protection from prominent supporters
Anyone who observed the trial must have been surprised by today's judgment.
The judge had treated Assange hostile and arrogant.
She had denied the requests for relief and made it very difficult for him and his lawyers to prepare for the trial.
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Julian Assange could be released on bail - his lawyers announced an application by Wednesday
Photo: Chris J Ratcliffe / Getty Images
The WikiLeaks founder had supporters all over the world: the Nobel Prize winner Elfriede Jelinek has spoken out in favor of his release, the Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, the London fashion designer Vivienne Westwood, the US actress Pamela Anderson, the former Brazilian President Lula and many others.
In Germany, for example, Günter Wallraff, ex-interior minister Gerhart Baum and ex-foreign minister Sigmar Gabriel campaigned for the release of Assange.
Members of the Bundestag from all parties except the AfD got together to support the WikiLeaks founder.
One of this group is Margit Stumpp from the Greens, who welcomes the verdict but criticizes the fact that it is “generally ignored”, “that the extradition request is politically motivated”.
Concrete help is also coming from Mexico: President Andrés Manuel López Obrador had already spoken out in favor of the release of Assange in the past.
Shortly after the decision, he announced that his country would offer Assange political asylum.
It will most likely not be the last judgment in the highly complex Assange case.
The US government has two weeks to appeal.
The British Home Secretary Priti Patel, a right-wing conservative, would decide on this.
If it rejects the appeal, the US government can again file an appeal, which would have to be decided by a judge of the Supreme Court.
"We can take a deep breath for the time being," said Christian Mihr, managing director of Reporters Without Borders Germany, to SPIEGEL.
"But the fight continues."
After Judge Baraitser pronounced her verdict on Monday and then announced that the hearing was adjourned until Wednesday morning at ten, Assange stood up, put a sweater over his shoulders and smiled a little - for the first time in the courtroom.
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