WikiLeaks' Assange to discover if he will be freed from jail

US says it will continue to seek his extradition to face charges

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange makes a speech from the balcony of the Ecuadorian Embassy, in central London, Britain February 5, 2016. REUTERS

WikiLeaks' founder Julian Assange will find out on Wednesday if he will be allowed to taste freedom after years of self-incarceration and jail time, after avoiding extradition from Britain to the US.

A British judge on Monday rejected a request from US authorities for Assange, 49, to be sent there to face 18 criminal charges of breaking an espionage law and conspiring to hack government computers.

The charges relate to the release by WikiLeaks of hundreds of thousands of confidential US military records and diplomatic cables that US officials say put lives in danger.

Although Judge Vanessa Baraitser accepted the US legal arguments in the case, she said Assange's mental health problems meant he would be at risk of suicide if he were extradited.

The US Department of Justice says it will continue to seek his extradition and will appeal against her verdict.

In the meantime, Assange, who is being held in top-security Belmarsh Prison in East London, will seek to be freed on bail on Wednesday.

If Ms Baraitser grants his request, he will be able to enjoy freedom for the first time in more than eight years.

Admirers hail Australian-born Assange as a hero for exposing what they call abuses of power by the US.

But detractors say he is a dangerous figure who has undermined the security of the West, and dispute that he is a journalist.

WikiLeaks published hundreds of thousands of secret US diplomatic messages that laid bare often critical US appraisals of world leaders.

Assange made international headlines in early 2010 when WikiLeaks published a classified US military video showing a 2007 attack by Apache helicopters that killed a dozen people in Baghdad, including two Reuters news staff.

In June 2012, Assange fled to London's Ecuadorean embassy after losing his bid to prevent extradition to Sweden, where he was wanted for questioning over alleged sex crimes.

He remained in the embassy, living in confined conditions, until being dragged out in April 2019.

Although the Swedish case against him had been dropped by then, he was jailed for breaching British bail conditions and his supporters forfeited sureties of £93,500 ($127,076).

FILE PHOTO: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange arrives at the Westminster Magistrates Court, after he was arrested in London, Britain April 11, 2019. REUTERS/Hannah McKay/File Photo

He has remained behind bars after completing his jail term pending the outcome of the US extradition case, which would include any appeal by the US.

Ms Baraitser has previously refused him bail, saying he remained a flight risk.

Assange's partner Stella Moris, with whom he had two children while in the embassy, said they could not celebrate as long as he was still in prison.

"We will celebrate the day he comes home," Ms Moris said.

Assange's lawyer, Edward Fitzgerald, said on Monday that the extradition ruling cast a new light on the bail decision.

But Nick Vamos, lawyer at London firm Peters and Peters and a former head of extradition at Britain's Crown Prosecution Service, said he expected his bid not to succeed.

"To do so he would have to point to some change in circumstances, for example the Covid-19 risk in Belmarsh, other than the extradition judgment in his favour," Mr Vamos said.

"I expect his bail application to fail."