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A30 world news
Diabierna 25 September 2020

Assange 'binge-watched' suicide of ex-Bosnian Croat general

British prison. for refusing to testify before
Crosby also said that in a a grand jury investigating
visit to Belmarsh Prison in WikiLeaks.
London in October 2019, As- Psychologist Nigel Black-
sange "appeared to be severe- wood, who assessed Assange
ly depressed" and that he had at Belmarsh, rebutted de-
talked about having thoughts fense experts on the extent of
of suicide "hundreds of times Assange's condition, saying
a day." his suicide risk was "manage-
"He seemed to be in very dire able."
straits," she said. "I think there is some risk of
U.S. prosecutors have in- suicide but that risk has to
dicted the 49-year-old on 17 be carefully managed at Bel-
espionage charges and one marsh," he said. "The risk
charge of computer misuse factors are modifiable and he
over WikiLeaks' publication engages with treatment avail-
of secret American military able to manage that risk."
documents a decade ago. The Assange, he added, is a "very
charges carry a maximum resilient and very resource-
(AP) — Julian Assange work. hours later. sentence of 175 years in pris- ful man," who is at "the very
relayed how he "binge- Crosby told London's Old The dramatic scene of the on. mildest end" of the autism
watched" the suicide of the Bailey criminal court that 72-year-old former com- Lawyers acting on behalf of spectrum. Blackwood noted
former Bosnian Croat gener- on a visit in February 2018, mander of Bosnian Croat the U.S. government have that Assange has been "highly
al in a U.N. courtroom three Assange had first described military forces lifting his sought to show that Assange's functioning to a very high
years ago, a doctor who vis- thoughts of suicide and how trembling right hand to his mental state is not as bad as level in running a very suc-
ited the WikiLeaks founder he was thinking about it "very mouth and drinking the liq- claimed by witnesses acting cessful organization."
on several occasions while he deliberately" and that he had uid was streamed live on the for the defense and that he He did say that Assange's
was in the Ecuadorian Em- "binge-watched" the suicide court's website. wouldn't be subjected to im- mental health benefits from
bassy in London told an ex- a few months earlier of Slo- She said Assange described proper conditions if sent to being able to have access to
tradition hearing Thursday. bodan Praljak at the Interna- how he "freeze-framed" and the pre-trial facilities at Alex- family and friends and re-
Dr. Sondra Crosby, associate tional Criminal Tribunal for "analyzed" Praljak's face while andria Detention Center in cently to the Samaritans
professor of medicine at the the Former Yugoslavia in The he took his own life. Virginia. helpline in the U.K. aimed
Boston University School of Hague. Assange's lawyers have ar- It was at that facility that at providing support to any-
Medicine, said she noted a Seconds after an appeals gued this week that their cli- Chelsea Manning, the for- one in emotional distress or
visible deterioration in both judge confirmed his 20-year ent could very well try to kill mer intelligence analyst who thinking about suicide.
his mental and physical state sentence for war crimes dur- himself if he is sent to the leaking a trove of documents "I think there is some risk of
over her four visits from Oct. ing the 1992-95 Bosnian war, United States to face espio- to WikiLeaks, tried to take suicide attempt linked to ex-
2017 to the embassy where Praljak proclaimed his inno- nage charges, and have point- her own life earlier this year. tradition, but not substantial
Assange was living. He had cence and then drank from ed to his deteriorating mental Though President Barack risk," he told the court. "His
been granted asylum by Ec- a small bottle containing state during his seven-year Obama commuted the re- suicide risk may increase in a
uador five years earlier over potassium cyanide. He col- stay at the Ecuadorian Em- mainder of her 35-year sen- much more deleterious en-
fears of extradition to the lapsed in court and died in bassy and since his ejection tence in 2017, Manning has vironment without access to
U.S. related to his WikiLeaks a Dutch hospital about two from there in April 2019 to a been in jail since May 2019 things that he values."

German bishops set up system for larger sex abuse payments

(AP) — The Catholic More than half of the victims toward state law," Katsch said es and oriented toward the added.
Church in Germany is set- were 13 or younger when the in a statement. "In doing so, "upper region" of those pay- The payment-setting body
ting up a new system to com- abuse took place, and nearly a they acknowledge that the ments, Baetzing said, mean- will include medical, psycho-
pensate survivors of sexual third of them were altar boys. so-called 'recognition pay- ing "a framework of up to logical, legal and educational
abuse by clergy that will pro- A top bishop has apologized ment' of up to 5,000 euros in 50,000 euros." experts who do not work
vide for payments of up to for the abuse. recent years was unjust." "These are one-time pay- for the church, the bishop
about 50,000 euros ($58,400) Under the previous system in The future level of payments ments that will be set individ- said. Its members are to be
to each victim. Germany, people could apply will be based on the awards ually by an independent body appointed by a committee
Victims will be able to apply for "payments in recognition from court judgments and for every person affected who whose majority is from out-
for payments under the new of suffering." Payments un- verdicts in comparable cas- makes an application," he side the church.
system starting Jan. 1, the der that system have averaged
head of the German Bishops' about 5,000 euros ($5,840)
Conference, Limburg Bishop since 2011.
Georg Baetzing, said Thurs- The new guidelines fall short
day after conference mem- of a recommendation pre-
bers signed off at a meeting sented to the bishops by an
on the details of a proposal independent working group
approved in March. last year for payments rang-
The Catholic Church has ing to up to 400,000 euros
been shaken in recent years ($467,000) per person.
by sex abuse and cover-up A group representing victims,
scandals in several coun- Eckiger Tisch, was unim-
tries, including Germany, the pressed by the bishops' deci-
homeland of Emeritus Pope sion. Its spokesman, Matthias
Benedict XVI. Katsch, called for last year's
A church-commissioned re- recommendation to be made
port in 2018 concluded that "the basis for talks between
at least 3,677 people were people affected and bishops."
abused by clergy in Germa- "After 10 years, the bishops
ny between 1946 and 2014. decide to orient themselves