A British judge has blocked the extradition of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to the United States, where he could have faced up to 175 years in prison. In an extraordinary decision, Judge Vanessa Baraitser said Assange would not be safe in U.S. prisons due to the state of his mental health and the increased risk of suicide. Judge Baraitser said, “I find that the mental condition of Mr. Assange is such that it would be oppressive to extradite him to the United States of America.” Supporters of Assange celebrated outside the London courthouse.

John Rees: “Do celebrate that the American prison system is so bad that even this judge wouldn’t send Julian Assange into it.”

In 2019, Julian Assange was indicted in the United States on 17 counts of violating the Espionage Act related to the publication of classified documents exposing U.S. war crimes in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere. We’ll have more on the story after headlines