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London— —A London judge will broaden the scope of US appeals on Wednesday to prevent WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange from being handed over from the United Kingdom and will hear a new bid in late October.
In January, a judge said Assange’s mental health problems were at risk of suicide and ruled that Assange should not be handed over to the United States in the face of criminal charges, including espionage violations.
Assange faces 18 criminal charges in the United States for violating espionage law and colluding to hack government computers.
WikiLeaks released a US military video in 2010 showing that a 2007 Apache helicopter attack in Baghdad killed 12 people, including two Reuters news staff. Since then, we have released thousands of confidential files and diplomatic cables.
The legal story began shortly after Sweden called for Assange to be handed over from Britain over allegations of sex crimes. When he lost the case in 2012, he fled to the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where he spent seven years.
When finally pulled out in April 2019, the Swedish proceedings against him were withdrawn, but he was imprisoned for violating British bail terms.
The U.S. has already been granted permission to appeal the January ruling for three reasons, but will include a reassessment of the expert evidence used to assess Assange’s suicide risk on Wednesday. Asked to expand its scope.
Judge Timothy Holroid said it was rare to review evidence from expert witnesses when the Court of Appeals was accepted by a lower court.
However, it is arguable that the Court of Appeals may give different assessments, given that key experts did not disclose what they knew about Assange’s relationship with partner Stella Morris. He said.
“… It’s my view that the DJ (district judge) made a mistake,” he said.
Both lawyers agreed that a full appeal should be scheduled from October 27-28.
Assange wore glasses, a mask and a white shirt and attended the hearing at Videolink.
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