FREE HI... Nvm, British court grants US request to extradite Julian Assange

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/united-states-wins-appeal-over-extradition-wikileaks-founder-assange-2021-12-10/
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/12/10/us-wins-appeal-over-extradition-of-wikileaks-founder-assange
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-12-10/julian-assange-s-extradition-to-u-s-granted-by-u-k-judges

The United States government has won an appeal at Britain’s High Court over the extradition of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

Friday’s ruling, which overturns an earlier decision, means 50-year-old Assange may now be closer to being sent from London’s high-security Belmarsh prison to the US, where he would face spying charges over WikiLeaks’ publication of secret military documents a decade ago.

A UK judge said he was satisfied with a package of assurances given by the US about the conditions of the detention of Assange, who watched the proceedings via video link from Belmarsh prison.

These included a pledge not to hold him in a so-called “ADX” maximum security prison and that he could be transferred to Australia, where he holds citizenship, to serve his sentence if convicted.

The UK court said that US assurances were enough to guarantee Assange would be treated humanely and directed a lower court judge to send the extradition request to the home secretary, Priti Patel, for review.

Patel, who oversees law enforcement in the United Kingdom, will make the final choice on whether to extradite Assange. The legal saga is far from over, however, and it is almost certain to go to the Supreme Court, the United Kingdom’s final court of appeal.

Assange’s partner, Stella Moris, said Friday’s ruling was a “grave miscarriage of justice”, and promised Assange’s legal team would “appeal this decision at the earliest possible moment”.

Amnesty International also called the decision a “travesty”.

“If extradited to the US, Julian Assange could not only face trial on charges under the Espionage Act but also a real risk of serious human rights violations due to detention conditions that could amount to torture or other ill-treatment,” the rights group’s Europe director, Nils Muiznieks, said in a statement.