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The United States said it would appeal the ruling on Monday and requested that Assange be remanded in custody while this process is ongoing.
Judge Vanessa Baraitser said in her ruling on Wednesday that “there are substantial reasons to believe that if Mr. Assange is released today he would not go to court and face the appeal process.” .
The 49-year-old Australian will remain in Belmarsh prison in London, where he has already served a 50-week sentence for violating bail conditions in 2012 when he entered the Ecuadorian embassy in London to avoid his extradition to Sweden.
Assange faces a US federal indictment of 18 counts for his role in publishing classified military and diplomatic cables.
In April 2019, the United States charged him with “conspiracy to commit a computer intrusion,” a charge that carries a maximum penalty of five years. In May 2019, the federal government charged Assange with 17 additional counts under the Espionage Act for his role in posting classified military and diplomatic cables.
Each of those counts carries a potential 10-year sentence, meaning that if found guilty, Assange could be sentenced to 175 years in prison.
The US government alleges that Assange actively solicited classified information from former Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning, who obtained thousands of pages of classified documents and provided Assange with diplomatic cables from the Department of State, important activity reports related to the war in Iraq and information relating to detainees at Guantanamo Bay.
Lawyers and supporters of Assange have long argued that the extradition decision and the charges against him are politically motivated and that, if executed, they would have a chilling effect on press freedom in the United States. United Kingdom and United Kingdom.
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