CIA ‘murder’ plot allegation is game-changer in Assange extradition hearing, says fiancée | world news

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LONDON (Reuters) – Julian Assange’s partner said on Monday that a news report that the CIA had plotted to kill or kidnap the WikiLeaks founder was a game-changer in his fight against extradition from Britain to United States.

US authorities will this week begin their appeal against a UK judge’s refusal to extradite Assange – who is wanted on 18 charges, including breaching an espionage law – because his mental health issues meant he was in danger of committing suicide.

Last month, Yahoo News reported that CIA officials had worked out options for former US President Donald Trump’s administration to deal with Assange while he was locked up in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, including by murdering him or kidnapping him.

A CIA spokesperson declined to comment on Yahoo’s report. The US government lawyer leading the prosecution against Assange did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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“This (Yahoo report) is a game-changer in the appeal because it shows the true nature, the true origins, the true criminality of the US actions against Julian,” said his fiancée Stella Moris, with whom Assange has two children. journalists.

WikiLeaks rose to prominence when it began publishing thousands of secret files and diplomatic cables in 2010. Shortly after, Sweden sought Assange’s extradition from Britain over alleged crimes sexual. When he lost that extradition case in 2012, he fled to the Ecuadorian embassy.

He was eventually dragged out of the embassy in April 2019 and jailed for breaching UK bail conditions, although the Swedish case against him has already been dropped.

The American authorities then requested his extradition. Although the British judge on January 4 rejected Assange’s arguments that the case was political and an attack on freedom of expression, Moris said there was a real risk that if he were recognized guilty, he will be held in a maximum security prison in near total isolation. .

This would lead him to attempt suicide, Moris concluded.

US lawyers aim to challenge the ruling against US extradition and evidence given by a key expert at a two-day appeal hearing at the High Court in London from Wednesday.

No results are expected immediately, and Moris said the process could be quick, with Assange extradited by next summer, or it could take years.

“Both perspectives are terrifying,” she said. Currently, Assange is being held in the high-security Belmarsh prison in London, where Moris visited him on Saturday, saying he looked very skinny.

“He looked very sick,” she said.

(Reporting by Michael Holden with additional reporting by Mark Hosenball in Washington; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

Copyright 2021 Thomson Reuters.

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