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Stella Morris: Julian Assange's fiancee blasts extradition to US 'which plotted to kill him'

The US has won an appeal in a British appellate court to have the 50-year-old journalist extradited

Julian Assange's fiancee Stella Morris spoke out against the decision by London's High Court to allow the Wikileaks founder to be extradited to the US to face espionage charges.

The US on Friday, December 10, won an appeal in the British appellate court to have the 50-year-old journalist extradited to face charges over WikiLeaks’ publication of secret military documents a decade ago. A lower court judge had refused an initial extradition request saying he was likely to kill himself if held under the harsh prison conditions in the US. But the US government appealed the decision arguing that Assange had “no history of serious and enduring mental illness," the New York Post reported.

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Morris, a lawyer with whom Assange secretly fathered two children while she helped fight against his extradition, supported her fiancee at court. "We will appeal this decision at the earliest possible moment," she said following the verdict. "How can it be fair, how can it be right, how can it be possible, to extradite Julian to the very country which plotted to kill him? I want to emphasize that the High Court accepted all the medical evidence and the conclusions of the magistrate that if Julian is extradited and placed under extreme conditions of isolation it will drive him to take his own life, that extradition is oppressive. They incorporate the possibility of breaking those assurances in their very wording." Morris continued, "Today, it's been almost a year since I stood outside court with our victory of the blocking of the extradition. To have the foremost publisher, journalist, of the past 50 years in a UK prison, accused of publishing the truth about war crimes, about CIA kill teams."

"In fact every time we have hearings, we know more about the abusive nature, the criminal nature, of this case. This goes to the fundamentals of press freedom and democracy," she said. "We will fight. Every generation has an epic fight to fight and this is ours, because Julian represents the fundamentals of what it means to live in a free society, of what it means to have press freedom, of what it means for journalists to do their jobs without being afraid of spending the rest of their lives in prison." Morris added, "Julian represents all our liberties and all our rights."

Assange's supporters railed against the verdict on social media. "This man's already long served his time. Let him out already. The blame will fall squarely on UK courts if this isn't reversed on appeal," one said.

"It is nothing but a scandal, a travesty, an utter disrespect for journalistic integrity. All journalists out there, beware what you write. A precedence has been set. You could be next," another added.

"The British judicial system has failed. It has shown it is part and parcel of a corrupt political and judicial elite order where justice does not prevail, where truth is secondary to power, where the criminal may get away with prosecuting the innocent. The fight goes on," said a third.

Morris, who was born in South Africa, fell in love with Assange five years ago while helping him in his legal bid to halt the extraditions. The couple has been engaged since 2017 and had children Gabriel, 3, and Max, one, while he was holed up in the Ecuadorian embassy in London. The duo kept their relationship and family a secret from the public until last September.