"There's no doubt that he'd [Assange] die in jail if sent to the United States. However it's a political case so an extradition can't go ahead", Shipton said.
Assange was forced out of the Ecuadorian Embassy in the United Kingdom last April, where he spent seven years evading possible extradition to the US over a major leak of classified cables that exposed alleged US transgressions during the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
In the same month, the whistleblower was subsequently charged with violating the US Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. A month later, the US Justice Department filed 17 additional charges against the WikiLeaks founder, mainly regarding violations of the Espionage Act.
The whistleblower is currently being held at a high-security prison in London pending an extradition trial that is scheduled to begin the next Monday.
In the United States, Assange could face 175 years in prison, with experts expressing concerns that his current condition would prevent Assange from properly participating in his defence. Several medical experts have said Assange has been tortured and continually denied appropriate healthcare while under arrest.
