A leaked footage of 18 civilians being shot by US soldiers from a helicopter in Iraq caught the world’s attention in 2010. This video released by WikiLeaks, established by Australian editor Julian Assange in 2006, came into public scrutiny after a number of exposé operations the team led. However, Julian with all his expertise and highly driven intelligence remained away from the clutches of law until Swedish authorities pursued a sexual assault case against him based on a claim that Assange sexually molested and coerced two womene in August 2010, while on a visit to Stockholm to give a lecture.

The WikiLeaks founder has been rounded up on 18 charges under the US Espionage Act relating to the 2010 release by WikiLeaks of 500,000 secret files detailing aspects of US military campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq. He has been accused of helping intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning to steal the documents before exposing confidential sources around the world.

Assange spent seven years inside the embassy before being arrested by British police on 11 April, 2019. It came after Ecuadorean President Lenín Moreno tweeted that his country had taken “a sovereign decision” to withdraw his asylum status. The extradition hearing is the latest in a series of legal battles faced by Assange since the leaks a decade ago.

In an revelation, Micheal Kopelman, a psychiatrist by profession, has said that the Australian national would be at a  ‘very high’ suicide risk if the US extradition happens.

Kopelman has interviewed the former hacker about 20 times and says that he has been hearing imaginary voices and music in the British prison.

The psychiatrist said that the condition of Assange is an indication of severe depression supported by psychotic symptoms like auditory hallucinations. The face of WikiLeaks is currently hidden in a solitary confinement in his cell at the high-security Belmarsh Prison in southwest London.

Julian Assange has been hearing voices saying, “you are dust, you are dead, we are coming to get you,” Micheal said during the extradition hearing.

“Assange’s suicidal impulses” arise out of clinical factors… but it is the imminence of extradition that will trigger the attempt. He will deteriorate substantially” if extradited,” Kopelman said.

Trying to put Assange behind bars for his lifetime (prison time adds up to 175 years), James Lewis, the US government attorney  questioned Kopelman’s claims, suggesting a sense of falsity.