So turns out — for now! — Assange won’t be extradited. Whether he’ll be set free on bail is yet to be seen, though1.
The thing is that the lawyers representing the US government have already said they’ll appeal the decision.
All the while Assange’s health is deteriorating in solitary under conditions described by various NGOs and Nils Melzer of the UN as amounting to torture. So the question, should Assange not be set free on Wednesday, will be how long the US can drag this out and whether Assange will survive this ordeal.
For the sake of him, the mother of his two children and the children I do hope the best for him, but if Assange isn’t immediately freed from this inhumane incarceration I fear the US may get one desirable2 outcome either way, even without extradition.
If I was religious I’d call upon you, dear reader, to pray for Assange. But instead of this call for an action that amounts to literally the least anyone could do, I’d like to encourage you to to head over to this campaign page and donate toward his legal defence. I already did and probably will again.
// Oliver
PS: As a side-note: the German government, or rather one particular official of the German government grew a spine and doubted the rule of law in the UK for the very first time. Unsurprisingly for the first time right after the oh-so-hard Brexit. And while this one official made a statement, agreement from other high-ranking officials was not heard. Therefore I want to introduce you, dear reader, to a very nice German word: fremdschämen. It means to be ashamed for someone else’s actions. Unfortunately I doubt that – unlike Kindergarten or Schadenfreude – it will find its way into English on account of the ä in it 😉
PPS: Oh yeah, and some German members of parliament also established a group demanding the release of Assange at the end of last year. Can this really be coincidence? The fact that we basically have a copy&paste last-minute “accord” with the UK, but effectively the UK is out with the turn of the year? Assange was so far rotting for some 19 or 20 months in solitary under conditions you’d expect to be reported from prisons in African dictatorships, but hey … take your time, dear representatives. It’s merely the freedom of press at stake here. It’s not like this is about the right to make profit which is way more constituting for our society these days …