CIA ‘assassination’ plot allegation is a game changer at Assange’s extradition hearing, fiancee says

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LONDON – Julian Assange’s associate said on Monday that a media report that the CIA had conspired to kill or kidnap the WikiLeaks founder was a game changer in his fight against Britain’s extradition to the United States.

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US authorities will begin their appeal this week against a British judge’s refusal to extradite Assange, who is wanted on 18 criminal charges, including violation of an espionage law, because his mental health problems meant he would be at risk of suicide. .

Last month, Yahoo News reported that CIA officials had worked out options for the administration of former US President Donald Trump to deal with Assange while he was being held at the Ecuadorian embassy in London, including assassination or the kidnapping.

The CIA and the US government attorney leading Assange’s prosecution did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the Yahoo report.

“This (Yahoo! report) is a game changer on appeal because it shows the true nature, the true origins, the true criminality of America’s actions against Julian,” said his fiancée Stella Moris, with whom Assange has had two sons. reporters.

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WikiLeaks rose to prominence when it began publishing thousands of secret classified files and diplomatic cables in 2010. Soon after, Sweden requested Assange’s extradition from Britain on allegations of sex crimes. When he lost that case against extradition in 2012, he fled to the Ecuadorian embassy.

He was finally removed from the embassy in April 2019 and imprisoned for violating the conditions of the British bail, although the Swedish case against him had already been withdrawn.

Later, the US authorities requested his extradition. Although the British judge on January 4 rejected Assange’s arguments that the case was political and an assault on freedom of expression, Moris said there was a real risk that, if found guilty, he would be held in a maximum prison. security in almost total isolation. .

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That would lead him to attempt suicide, Moris concluded.

American lawyers intend to challenge the ruling against the American extradition and the evidence provided by a key expert in a two-day appeal hearing in London’s High Court starting Wednesday.

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

“Both prospects are terrifying,” he said. Assange is currently being held in London’s maximum security Belmarsh Prison, where Moris visited him on Saturday and said he looked very thin.

“It looked really bad,” he said.