The British judge refused the bail to J …

Two days ago, journalism took a little breather. In a landmark decision, London Central Criminal Court magistrate Vanessa Baraitser denied the extradition of journalist Julian Assange, founder of WikiLeaks. But today in In the morning, Judge Baraitser decided to deny him bail and keep him in Belmarsh Maximum Security Prison, located in south London.

The rejection of British justice is contradictory if we take into account that uone of the reasons the magistrate refused the extradition was because she considered it could worsen the health of Assange, who has been in prison since April 2019 when Lenín Moreno, the Ecuadorian president, revoked the political asylum which allowed the Australian to take refuge and survive in the Ecuadorian embassy in London since 2012. The trial dated April 2020 finally began on September 7 of Last year.

Assange’s lawyers had requested his release on bail on other occasions and were dismissed. However, After Baraitser’s decision to refuse extradition to the United States, an opportunity opened up to reunite the journalist with his wife Stella Morris and their two children.. One of the arguments used for not allowing his freedom arose after the President of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador offered him political asylum: the prosecution alleged that Assange had the resources to flee. However, defense attorney Edward Fitzgerald explained that the Mexican president’s statements have since been misinterpreted. asylum offered it so that after the trial was over, Assange would have the option of living outside the UK.

The decision to keep the journalist in a maximum security prison has also been questioned by international human rights organizations. In May 2019, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture, Nils Melzer, visited Assange alongside a medical team with over 30 years of experience working with victims of torture. ANDn the report he gave at a press conference at the UN stated that Assange “had been exposed to psychological torture for an extended period”. Melzer also urged the states involved in the investigation to ease the pressure on Assange. Since then, Melzer has actively denounced the torture suffered by the founder of WikiLeaks. In an interview given by Melzer to Deustche Welle at the end of December 2020, He explained that Assange “is being prosecuted for espionage only for practicing investigative journalism.” He added that “essentially the United States is trying to criminalize investigative journalism, that is the purpose of this extradition request, nothing more.”

WikiLeaks, the organization Assange founded in 2010, has made public hundreds of thousands of cables from U.S. embassies around the world – and exposed the relationship between embassies and political elites in each country – as well as information demonstrating the crimes. of war committed by the United States during the military invasions in Iraq and Afghanistan. Information received and published by Assange via WikiLeaks, including war diaries showing that more than 15,000 Iraqi civilians were killed in the war against Iraq. WikiLeaks also leaked the video known as the “collateral murder” indicating that the military killed unarmed civilians. The information received by Wikileaks also concerned the detention center at the Guantanamo Bay military base, created for very dangerous prisoners in 2002, and the torture suffered by the prisoners. He also revealed the profiles of the prisoners, raising serious doubts about the dangerousness alleged by the United States.

Outside Westminster Magistrates Court, where the WikiLeaks founder ‘s refusal to grant bail was reported, hundreds of people, including journalists and free speech and human rights activists, gather to support freedom of expression. Assange. They have done so since he was a refugee at the Ecuadorian embassy in London.

In the USA, Zachary Terwilliger, Donald Trump’s designated attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, said he was not sure the new administration Joe Biden – who will take office in 14 days – wants to pursue the extradition request. Terywilliger made the remarks after announcing he would resign as US attorney for East Virginia – the district with the largest military population in the country – where they want to try Julian Assange.