The United States said it would appeal the decision on Monday and asked that Assange be kept in custody while the process is underway.
Judge Vanessa Baraitser said in her decision on Wednesday that “there are substantial grounds for believing that if Mr. Assange is released today, he will not surrender to court and face the appeal process”.
The 49-year-old Australian will remain in London’s Belmarsh prison, where he has already served a 50-week sentence for violating bail conditions in 2012, when he entered the Ecuadorian embassy in London to prevent extradition to Sweden.
Assange is facing a US federal indictment of 18 counts for his role in publishing classified military and diplomatic cables.
In April 2019, the United States accused him of “conspiracy to commit a computer invasion”, a charge that could lead to a maximum sentence of five years. In May 2019, the federal government accused Assange of 17 more charges under the Espionage Law for his role in publishing classified military and diplomatic cables.
Each of these charges carries a potential 10-year sentence, meaning that if convicted, Assange could face up to 175 years in prison.
The US government alleges that Assange actively requested confidential information from former Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning, who obtained thousands of pages of classified material and provided Assange with State Department diplomatic cables, reports of significant activities related to the war in Iraq and information related to detainees in Guantánamo Bay.
Assange’s lawyers and supporters have long argued that the extradition order and the charges against him are politically motivated and that, if executed, would have an inhibiting effect on press freedom in both the United States and the United Kingdom.