‘No longer unjust’ to extradite WilkiLeaks founder Julian Assange, court docket hears

‘No longer unjust’ to extradite WilkiLeaks founder Julian Assange, court docket hears

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Nigel Blackwood, NHS consultant psychiatrist, told the Frail Bailey court docket that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange had ‘moderate unhappy’ and autistic traits, nonetheless said they did now not prevent his extradition

Bill Goodwin

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Published: 24 Sep 2020 19: 47

Julian Assange’s clinical prerequisites did now not prevent him from being extradited for trial or being held in a US penal complex, a court docket heard on 24 September.

Nigel Blackwood, an NHS consultant psychiatrist, told the Frail Bailey that the WikiLeaks’ founder had “moderate unhappy” and that his threat of suicide will probably be managed.

Blackwood said that Assange became a extraordinarily resourceful and capable man and is challenging to withstand any impulse to suicide.

Assange’s mental smartly being and threat of suicide is without doubt one of many factors that can pick whether or now not the WikiLeaks founder could possibly possibly very smartly be extradited to the US.

Assange’s defence team is counting on precedent-atmosphere cases when the UK refused the extradition of Gary McKinnon in 2012 and Lauri Treasure in 2018 to face hacking prices.

In Treasure’s case, the Excessive Court agreed that his extradition to the US would possess an detrimental affect on his mental smartly-being within the sunshine of his Asperger’s syndrome and history of unhappy.

Giving proof on the thirteenth day of the listening to on the Frail Bailey, Blackwood told the court docket that as soon as he examined Assange in April, he chanced on him to be “moderately miserable”. There became some threat of Assange committing suicide, nonetheless this threat had been in moderation managed by Belmarsh penal complex.

Blackwood said that he disagreed with a describe from Michael Kopelman, head of neuropsychiatry at King’s College London, that Assange had been “severely miserable with psychotic symptoms” and that his lifestyles could possibly possibly possibly be at threat if extradited to the US.

Blackwood current that Assange had a routine depressive disorder, nonetheless became puzzled why Kopelman, a scrutinize for the defence, had placed Assange at potentially the most vulgar break of the disorder.

“If it became the case that he had severe unhappy with psychotic capabilities, it became absolutely incumbent on [the prison doctor] to refer him out for assessment and treatment,” he said.

The very fact that they did now not urged that the team guilty for Assange’s mental smartly being care did now not learn him on the “vulgar break”.

Blackwood said that Assange became before the entirety alive to that Blackwood became working for the US authorities and that the CIA would harvest any vulnerabilities from the describe to exercise in opposition to him.

Assange became at an elevated threat of suicide, nonetheless suicide is a rare match and the threat could possibly possibly very smartly be managed, Blackwood said, adding that Assange had traits of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) nonetheless now not ample to procure him “over the road”.

Assange became ‘now not originate with penal complex clinical doctors’

Sondra Crosby, a professor of capsules at Boston College, told the court docket that she had visited Assange when he became within the Ecuadorian Embassy in 2017 and in Belmarsh penal complex in 2019.

For the period of a talk about with to Belmarsh penal complex in October 2019, she said Assange told her he had now not disclosed the extent of his suicidal thoughts to penal complex group.

“Mr Assange told me he became now not revealing the beefy extent of his unhappy and suicide plans to penal complex clinical doctors and mental smartly being specialists,” she said. “Here’s one thing I uncover very time and again in prisons.”

Assange court sketch
Assange in court docket

She said prisoners scared that they would possibly possibly be effect below increased commentary or face other restrictions if they were originate about their prerequisites.

Assange perceived to be severely miserable, talked about suicide and “talked as if he were dreary”, she said, adding: “He told me that the one thing that became very precious became his access to the Samaritans.”

Assange met your whole requirements for main unhappy, and it became affecting has capability to operate. “I felt that his threat of suicide became very high. What he consistently said became a trigger could possibly possibly possibly be his extradition to the US where he felt his lifestyles could possibly possibly possibly be intolerable,” said Crosby.

Assange could possibly possibly face solitary confinement

Edward Fitzgerald QC for the defence said that Assange could possibly possibly possibly be kept below prerequisites that amounted to solitary confinement in a US federal penal complex.

For the period of adversarial-examination, Blackwood agreed that he had essentially based mostly his conclusion that there became no solitary confinement in US prisons on the scrutinize assertion by US prosecutor Gordon Kromberg.

He said he had now not checked out proof from defence specialists that chanced on that Assange became at threat of be kept in a cell 22 to 23 hours a day with little or no contact with other prisoners.

Fitzgerald referred to a describe from a US penal complex warder that said the fully contact prisoners below particular administrative measures (SAMS) would possess is when penal complex group originate the viewing slot of their cells, or when penal complex group delivered food by a accurate slot.

“If that pertains, and that appears to be potentially the most pessimistic assessment, it can possibly possibly possess an affect on his mental relate, yes,” said Blackwood.

The court docket heard that Assange had fashioned a trusting relationship with a psychologist on the penal complex, who had celebrated an infinite number of occasions when Assange reported suicidal feelings and unhappy.

Blackman agreed that he had now not spoken to her for his describe.

Blackman had written that it can possibly possibly “now not be unjust” to extradite Assange to the US, nonetheless agreed below adversarial-examination that it became a resolution for the court docket and now not a clinical doctor.

Assange referred to the penal complex smartly being care unit as “smartly being don’t care” and had told Blackwood that it had “became him into an hallucinating puddle on the ground”, the court docket heard.

The case continues.

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