The U.S. government has promised the U.K. that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange will not be held under the strictest maximum-security conditions if extradited to the U.S., according to a new report.
The commitment, first reported by the Wall Street Journal, comes amid a yearslong fight to put Assange on trial for espionage charges.
The U.S. has also said that Assange will be allowed to serve any jail time in the event of his conviction in his native Australia, the public prosecutor’s office for England and Wales reportedly told the Journal.
The report came on the same day that a U.K. court formally allowed a U.S. government appeal against a January ruling that blocked Assange’s extradition.
A date for the hearing has not been set.
Earlier this year a British judge declined to grant a request by the U.S. to extradite Assange, arguing that Assange’s “mental condition” would make the conditions of a U.S. prison “oppressive” for him, as he would be in “near-total isolation.”
The 49-year-old Australian, who is being held in a maximum-security prison in London, previously avoided prosecution by staying for seven years inside an Ecuadorian embassy in London.
Assange faces a U.S. federal indictment of 17 espionage charges and one charge of computer misuse for his role in publishing classified military and diplomatic documents in 2010. Each count carries a maximum sentence of ten years, meaning Assange could face up to 175 years in prison.
The assurance from the United States that it will not hold Assange at ADX, a maximum-security federal penitentiary in Colorado, or subject him to extra security measures could clear the main roadblock to his extradition.