The thing about Julian Assange is that he is embroiled in one of the most confusing situations a person could be involved in. It seemed that for the longest time he had no place to go.
Imagine if you were sitting on a bus and about to walk into a hotel for the night when you got words that you could be arrested the second your feet touched the ground.
So to get to the hotel, you had to find pieces of wood to construct a crude bridge out of so that you could make it into the hotel without actually touching the ground and getting arrested.
President Lopez Obrador says Mexico is ready to offer Julian Assange asylum. On the day that a UK judge ruled that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange can’t be extradited to the United States, saying his health would be in jeopardy under the harsher, severe conditions of US federal supermax prison, Mexico has come forward with an unexpected offer.
Julian Assange could be moving to Mexico
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador announced in the hours after the ruling was handed down at the Old Bailey in London that he is prepared to offer asylum to Assange.
“Assange is a journalist and deserves a chance, I am in favor of pardoning him,” López Obrador announced at a news conference, Reuters reported. “We’ll give him protection.”
“I’m going to ask the foreign minister to ask the government of the United Kingdom about the possibility of letting Mr. Assange be freed and for Mexico to offer political asylum,” López Obrador added, while referring to the Monday ruling to prevent Assange being handed over to the US a “triumph of justice”.
Many among Latin America’s Leftist politicians have long been staunch supporters of Assange and WikiLeaks’ mission, foremost among them Mexico’s leader since 2018, who as Reuters points out, a year ago urged Britain to release Assange, calling his detention “torture” and saying WikiLeaks documents had showed the world’s “authoritarian” workings.
In Monday’s ruling Judge Vanessa Baraitser stated in her decision, “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,” while also adding he remains at risk of committing suicide.