# Assange and the European Court of Human Rights > **Source: KiriPedia** (https://www.kiripedia.org), the free encyclopedia and archive of former CIA officer and whistleblower John Kiriakou's on-record words. Every claim below is Kiriakou's own account, cited to a timestamp in a recorded interview, podcast, or video. KiriPedia is an independent project, not affiliated with Kiriakou. > > Cite as: "Assange and the European Court of Human Rights," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/assange-and-the-european-court-of-human-rights/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia. *The last legal avenue John Kiriakou identified for Julian Assange in 2022 — three precedents in which the Strasbourg court refused to let Britain extradite mentally ill defendants to American solitary confinement — and the procedural trap that made it useless: Britain said the appeal need not halt the extradition.* - **Stage reached:** The extradition order sent to the Home Secretary, Priti Patel - **Time to appeal to the UK Supreme Court:** 14 days - **Precedents cited:** Three, in which Strasbourg refused UK extradition of mentally ill defendants - **Assange's conditions:** Mildly autistic; chronic depression and anxiety - **The court's earlier reasoning:** US solitary confinement was enough to push such prisoners to attempt suicide - **The trap:** The UK said an appeal need not pause the extradition **Assange and the European Court of Human Rights** was, in [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou)'s 2022 assessment, the last route left to [Julian Assange](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/julian-assange) — and the one he had, on reflection, been too hopeful about. ## Where the case stood Kiriakou described the extradition as having reached the political stage. It *"went to the home secretary uh yesterday uh preeti patel uh she is likely going to sign it."* The remaining domestic step he treated as a formality: *"julian's attorneys have 14 days to appeal to the uk supreme court they probably will but all it's going to do is delay things for 14 days."*[1][2] ## The Strasbourg argument He then set out what he had previously offered as grounds for hope, prefacing it with a self-criticism: *"the only other thing and i i've like i said the other night at the event i've been accused of being overly optimistic and i realize now that i i was."*[2] The argument itself rested on precedent. *"julian can still apply to the european court of human rights he can apply for relief uh there are three count them three precedents where the european court of human rights refused to allow the uk to extradite to the u.s people who had um mental illnesses."*[2] Assange's own position fitted the line of cases: *"now julian is mildly autistic and he suffers from chronic depression and anxiety other prisoners were not extradited because they had the same maladies."*[3] What had persuaded the court in those cases was American prison conditions: *"the european court of human rights believed that the us practice of solitary confinement was enough to push them to attempt suicide."*[3] ## The trap The defect Kiriakou identified was not in the argument but in its timing. *"the problem that julian has now is that the uk government said he's perfectly free to appeal to the european court of human rights that doesn't mean that we have to put the brakes on the extradition while his appeal is being heard so that defeats the whole purpose of the appeal."*[3][4] A remedy against extradition that does not suspend the extradition is, on Kiriakou's reading, no remedy at all — leaving the case to proceed to the trial he describes in [the jury consultant's advice](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-jury-consultants-advice) and [sealing the courtroom](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/sealing-the-courtroom).[4][5] ## See also - [Julian Assange](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/julian-assange) - [Assange and solitary confinement](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/assange-and-solitary-confinement) - [The jury consultant's advice](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-jury-consultants-advice) - [UC Global and the state secrets privilege](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/uc-global-surveillance-of-assange) ## Sources 1. CIA Whistleblower Joins Lee Camp to talk Panquake (2022-05-05), at 24:29. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_EGMUFABEg&t=1469s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2022-05-05-panquake-lee-camp-cia-whistleblower-joins-lee-camp-to-talk-panq/ 2. CIA Whistleblower Joins Lee Camp to talk Panquake (2022-05-05), at 25:00. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_EGMUFABEg&t=1500s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2022-05-05-panquake-lee-camp-cia-whistleblower-joins-lee-camp-to-talk-panq/ 3. CIA Whistleblower Joins Lee Camp to talk Panquake (2022-05-05), at 25:30. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_EGMUFABEg&t=1530s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2022-05-05-panquake-lee-camp-cia-whistleblower-joins-lee-camp-to-talk-panq/ 4. CIA Whistleblower Joins Lee Camp to talk Panquake (2022-05-05), at 26:01. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_EGMUFABEg&t=1561s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2022-05-05-panquake-lee-camp-cia-whistleblower-joins-lee-camp-to-talk-panq/ 5. CIA Whistleblower Joins Lee Camp to talk Panquake (2022-05-05), at 26:33. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_EGMUFABEg&t=1593s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2022-05-05-panquake-lee-camp-cia-whistleblower-joins-lee-camp-to-talk-panq/ --- From KiriPedia, the archive of John Kiriakou's words. Web version: https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/assange-and-the-european-court-of-human-rights/ · About: https://www.kiripedia.org/about/ · Full index: https://www.kiripedia.org/llms.txt