British Court Refuses Julian Assange's Bail Plea

The Wikileaks founder has been confined to a London Prison for nearly a year, despite international calls for his immediate release.

The founder of Wikileaks Julian Assange will not be let out of a London Prison amid the  recent COVID-19 outbreak, the British court announced on Wednesday.

The Westminster Magistrates' Court in London has rejected a plea from the Assange defense team that called on the British authorities to release the Wikileaks founder from the high-security Belmarsh prison.

Judge Vanessa Baraitser, who is overlooking the Assange case, ruled that the Wikileaks founder should remain in prison until his case is heard next February.

​Assange's defense team attempted to argue that the whistleblower's health was at stake in this prison, as he has already suffered under the current prison conditions.

The defense team reported that Assange was in "imminent danger" if left inside the Belmarsh Prison, citing the rapid spread of coronavirus as the main reason for his release.

The whistleblower was arrested by the British authorities last year when the regime of Ecuadorean President Lenin Moreno announced that they were expelling him from their diplomatic mission in London.

Since then, the Wikileaks founder has been silenced by the British authorities while he awaits a trial that could see him extradited to the United States.