Julian Assange signals the media from a police vehicle upon his arrival at Westminster Magistrate’s Court on 11 April 2019 in London, England.
Jack Taylor | Getty Images
LONDON – WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been denied bail by a London court.
The ruling comes after a ruling on Monday said the 49-year-old Australian could not be extradited to the US
He is currently being held at HMP Belmarsh in south-east London for skipping bail on a previous occasion.
“I am satisfied that there are substantial grounds to believe that if Mr Assange is released today, he will not surrender to the court to face the appeal proceedings,” Judge Vanessa Baraitser told Reuters.
U.S. authorities want to charge Assange with spying after publishing hundreds of thousands of classified military documents and diplomatic cables on WikiLeaks in 2010 and 2011.
Baraitser said Monday that extradition would be repressive because of Assange’s mental health and warned he could commit suicide.
“The overall impression is of a depressed and sometimes desperate man who is really afraid of his future,” Baraitser wrote in her statement. “For all these reasons, I find that the risk of Mr Assange committing suicide, if an extradition order is made, is great.”