By Michael Holden

LONDON (Reuters), – Julian Assange’s partner claimed Monday that a media report claiming the CIA planned to kill or kidnap WikiLeaks founder WikiLeaks was a breakthrough in Assange’s struggle to prevent extradition to the United States from Britain.

This week, the U.S. will appeal against a British Judge’s decision not to extradite Assange. Assange is wanted for 18 crimes including spying and has mental problems that put him at serious risk of his suicide.

Yahoo News reports that CIA officials had drafted options for Donald Trump’s former administration to deal with Assange, while he was in London at the Ecuadorean embassy. This could have included assassinating, kidnapping, or even murdering him.

Yahoo reported that the CIA and the U.S. attorney leading Assange’s trial did not respond immediately to inquiries.

Stella Moris, Assange’s fiancee, said to reporters that the Yahoo Report was a major game-changer in the appeal. It shows Julian the truth, his true origins and criminality.

WikiLeaks was first known when it started publishing secret files in 2010 and diplomatic cables. Sweden demanded Assange’s extradition to Britain shortly afterward, citing allegations that Assange had committed sex crime. After losing the extradition case in 2012, Assange fled to Ecuador’s embassy.

In April 2019, he was finally taken out of the Embassy and imprisoned for violating British bail conditions. However, the Swedish case against him had been dropped.

U.S. authorities requested his extradition. Moris, however, stated there was a risk that Assange would end up in an extremely isolated maximum security prison if he was found guilty.

Moris concluded that this led him to try suicide.

U.S. lawyers seek to challenge U.S. extradition orders and testimony given by key experts at the two-day High Court appeal hearing, which began on Wednesday in London.

Moris indicated that no result can be expected immediately and suggested that Assange’s extradition could happen quickly. Or it could take several years.

She said that both of her prospects were “terrible.” Assange currently resides at London’s Belmarsh Prison, where Moris visited him Saturday and said that he was very thin.

“He was very unwell,” she stated.