Judge Baraitser accepted most of the US legal team’s arguments in the case, including that Assange could get a fair trial, that the case was not about freedom of speech but something more sinister, and that the suffering of Assange’s family in having their loved one taken to the US was not out of the ordinary.
But she would not come at the proposal to place Assange, a man who is at great risk of suicide and who suffers mental illness, in jail conditions that amounted to solitary confinement for years on end. “Faced with conditions of near total isolation … I am satisfied that the procedures (outline by US authorities) will not prevent Mr Assange from finding a way to commit suicide,” Judge Baraitser said.
Assange, if extradited, would have been held in a prison where he got one 15-minute monitored phone call with his family a month, where he could not have contact with other inmates, and where anytime out of his cell would be in a small room or a cage. Rather than face such conditions, which could remain in place for the rest of his life given the maximum penalty for the charges he faces in the US is over 170 years, Assange, Judge Baraitser concluded, would rather kill himself. To visit such a fate on an individual is not something this British court was prepared to do. In this sense Judge Baraitser struck a blow for the rule of law against an American penal system, which is horrifically inhumane, and which showed in this case that when it comes to so called “enemies of the state” it has learnt nothing from the horrors of Guantanamo Bay and other similar facilities.
Of course, though, as noted above, Assange’s troubles are not entirely over because of the lengthy appeal process which both sides can pursue depending on the ruling in respect of Judge Baraitser’s decision.
This is where Senator Payne and the Morrison government come into the picture, albeit they should have been there already lobbying Washington to end this case for some time now.
Fresh from diplomatic manoeuvring and delicate pressure successfully applied to persuade Iran to release Melbourne academic Kylie Moore-Gilbert in November it is time for Senator Payne to immediately pick up the phone to both her counterpart, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, whose term ends in three weeks, and Tony Blinken, the man new President Joe Biden has nominated to the position.
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The message Senator Payne ought to be sending is that Assange is an Australian citizen and there is deep concern running across political lines, and in the broader Australian community, about one of its citizens facing more than 170 years jail for revealing the underbelly of war and being kept in conditions that amount to torture. Australia as a deeply loyal ally but the US, as it did in vastly different circumstances in the case of former Guantanamo Bay detainee David Hicks, can respect that alliance by ensuring this Australian citizen does not face an effective death penalty.
Likewise with Morrison, who, as is the tradition with Australian prime ministers, is likely to receive a phone call from President Biden shortly after his inauguration. Morrison could use that precious window of opportunity to reiterate Senator Payne’s arguments and in particular emphasise that the Australian community expects their governments to take up the cudgels and rescue their fellow citizens from cruelty and torture, which is exactly what Judge Baraitser described.
