UK court blocks Assange's extradition to US

A British judge rules that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange should not be extradited to the United States to face espionage charges for publishing hundreds of thousands of secret documents online.

District Judge Vanessa Baraitser says the 49-year-old Australian publisher is a suicide risk if he is sent into custody across the Atlantic.

“For this reason I have decided extradition would be oppressive by reason of mental harm and I order his discharge,” she adds.

In this Feb. 5, 2016 file photo, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange speaks from the balcony of the Ecuadorean Embassy in London. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth, File)

Assange and his legal team have long argued that the protracted case, which has become a cause celebre for media freedom, was politically motivated.

— AFP