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Extradition

Assange Loses, High Court Allows US Appeal; Quashes Assange’s Discharge

December 10, 2021 Joe Lauria, Consortium News. , , ,
The High Court in London on Friday ruled in the U.S. appeal against a lower court decision not to extradite imprisoned WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange by sending the case back to Magistrate’s Court with instructions to send the case to the secretary of state to decide on Assange’s extradition. The matter is now in the hands of Dominic Raab, secretary of state for justice, unless Assange’s lawyers appeal the decision to the U.K. Supreme Court, which they have said they will do. If extradited, Assange faces up to 175 years in prison on charges under the Espionage Act and one count of conspiracy to commit computer intrusion. Assange is the first journalist to be charged with espionage for obtaining and publishing state secrets.

How Can They Accept Extradition To A Country That Plotted To Kill Julian?

December 10, 2021 WSWS. , , ,
I want to emphasize that the High Court accepted all the medical evidence and the conclusions of the magistrate that if Julian is extradited and placed under extreme conditions of isolation it will drive him to take his own life. That extradition is oppressive. Yet the High Court decided against Julian on this occasion on the basis of political assurances—non-assurances—that the US has given to the UK government. I say non-assurances. Amnesty International says non-assurances. Amnesty International has analyzed these assurances and has said that they are inherently unreliable. They incorporate the possibility of breaking those assurances in their very wording. Today, it’s been almost a year since I stood outside court with our victory of the blocking of the extradition.

Assange’s Judge Is Longtime Friend Of Minister Who Oversaw Arrest

December 4, 2021 Matt Kennard And Mark Curtis, Consortium News. , , ,
Lord Chief Justice Ian Burnett, the judge who will soon decide Julian Assange’s fate, is a close personal friend of Sir Alan Duncan, who as foreign minister arranged Assange’s eviction from the Ecuadorian embassy. The two have known each other since their student days at Oxford in the 1970s, when Duncan called Burnett “the Judge.” Burnett and his wife attended Duncan’s birthday dinner at a members-only London club in 2017, when Burnett was a judge at the court of appeal. Now the most powerful judge in England and Wales, Burnett will soon rule on Assange’s extradition case. The founder of WikiLeaks faces life imprisonment in the U.S..

New Files Expose Australian Government’s Betrayal Of Assange

November 18, 2021 Kit Klarenberg, The Grayzone. , , ,
Was the government of Australia aware of the US Central Intelligence Agency plot to assassinate Julian Assange, an Australian citizen and journalist arrested and now imprisoned under unrelentingly bleak, harsh conditions in the UK? Why have the country’s elected leaders refused to publicly advocate for one of its citizens, who has been held on dubious charges and subjected to torture by a foreign power, according to UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Nils Melzer? What does Canberra know about Julian’s fate and when did it know it? The Grayzone has obtained documents revealing that the Australian government has since day one been well-aware of Julian’s cruel treatment inside London’s maximum security Belmarsh Prison, and has done little to nothing about it.

Justice For Assange Is Justice For All

November 3, 2021 John Pilger, Green Left. , , ,
When I first saw Julian Assange in Belmarsh prison, in 2019, shortly after he had been dragged from his refuge in the Ecuadorean embassy, he said, “I think I am losing my mind”. He was gaunt and emaciated, his eyes hollow and the thinness of his arms was emphasised by a yellow identifying cloth tied around his left arm, an evocative symbol of institutional control. For all but the two hours of my visit, he was confined to a solitary cell in a wing known as “healthcare”, an Orwellian name. In the cell next to him a deeply disturbed man screamed through the night. Another occupant suffered from terminal cancer. Another was seriously disabled. “One day we were allowed to play Monopoly,” he said, “as therapy. That was our healthcare!” “This is One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” I said.

On Contact: Julian Assange Extradition Case

October 31, 2021 Chris Hedges, RT. , , ,
For the past two days, Chris Hedges has been watching the extradition hearing for Julian Assange via video link from London. The United States is appealing a lower court ruling that denied the US' request to extradite Assange not, unfortunately, because in the eyes of the court he is innocent of a crime, but because, as Judge Vanessa Baraitser in January concluded, Assange's precarious psychological state would deteriorate given the “harsh conditions” of the inhumane US prison system, “causing him to commit suicide.” The United States has charged Assange with 17 counts under the Espionage Act and one count of trying to hack into a government computer, charges that could see him imprisoned for 175 years.

US Lawyers Argue Assange Healthy Enough To Be Sent To His Death

October 30, 2021 Richard Medhurst’s Newsletter. , , ,
Some background information first: Assange’s extradition battle with the United States continued at the appeal hearing on October 27-28 at the High Court in London. The first day was largely the prosecution’s, with half an hour at the end for the defense. The second day was given to the defense to expand on its responses to the prosecution’s arguments. Equally, the US’ prosecutors were also given a brief moment at the end to counter. The High Court judges overseeing the hearing were Lord Justice Holroyde and Lord Chief Justice Lord Burnett. Holroyde ruled in the United States’ favor on August 11th, allowing them to appeal on all five grounds, including Assange’s health. Burnett previously presided over Lauri Love’s case, blocking his extradition to the United States.

USA Vs. Assange Day Two: ‘CIA Tried To Kill Assange’

October 29, 2021 Joe Lauria, Consortium News. , , ,
The United States vowed that only a “moderately depressed” Julian Assange would serve time in a humane U.S. prison if he is extradited, while lawyers for Assange told the High Court that the Central Intelligence Agency plotted to assassinate him, as a two-day U.S. appeal hearing came to a close on Thursday in London. The U.S. is seeking to overturn a lower court decision in January not to extradite the imprisoned WikiLeaks publisher on the grounds that he is at high risk of suicide if he faced time isolated in a harsh American prison. A prosecutor for the U.S. set out over the course of the hearing to convince the two High Court justices to reject that ruling, arguing that Assange is not seriously ill and would not be placed in solitary confinement should he be sent to the U.S.

The Most Important Battle For Press Freedom In Our Time

October 29, 2021 Chris Hedges, ScheerPost.com. , , ,
Washington, DC - For the past two days, I have been watching the extradition hearing for Julian Assange via video link from London. The United States is appealing a lower court ruling that denied the US request to extradite Assange not, unfortunately, because in the eyes of the court he is innocent of a crime, but because, as Judge Vanessa Baraitser in January concluded, Assange’s precarious psychological state would deteriorate given the “harsh conditions” of the inhumane US prison system, “causing him to commit suicide.” The United States has charged Assange with 17 counts under the Espionage Act and one count of trying to hack into a government computer, charges that could see him imprisoned for 175 years. 

Julian Assange Extradition Appeal: Day One

October 28, 2021 Assange Defense. , , ,
Julian Assange’s extradition appeal hearing, which will turn in part on determinations about his health and risk of suicide, commenced with the news that Julian was too ill to even follow the proceedings by remote video link from Belmarsh prison. Julian did enter the viewing box about midway through the morning’s session, but he appeared thin and unwell, and he could be seen leaving the room about an hour later. Assange’s extradition was denied in January of this year when District Judge Vanessa Baraitser ruled that ordering his extradition would put him at such high risk of suicide so as to be “oppressive.” The U.S. is appealing that ruling to the UK’s High Court on the grounds that, it argues, the judge misapplied evidence as to Assange’s mental health, and the U.S. government can assure the court that Assange wouldn’t be held under the worst and most isolating conditions if sentenced to a U.S. prison.

Five Ways The US Has Misled UK Courts On Assange’s Health

October 28, 2021 Catherine Vogan And Joe Lauria, Consortium News. , , ,
The United States appeal against a British judge’s decision not to extradite imprisoned WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange begins at the High Court in London on Wednesday with prosecutors for the U.S. seeking to prove Assange is faking psychological disorders and urges to kill himself. The U.S. wants the High Court to overturn the order of Magistrate Vanessa Baraitser on Jan. 4 not to extradite Assange to the U.S. — to face charges of espionage and conspiracy to commit computer intrusion — because of Assange’s high risk of suicide and the inhumane conditions of U.S. prisons. The High Court on July 7 granted the U.S. leave to appeal that decision, but initially limited it to issues not related to Assange’s health. In an unusual move, the U.S. challenged those grounds for appeal.

Court Should Deny Extradition Because CIA Planned To Assassinate Assange

October 27, 2021 Marjorie Cohn, Truthout. , , ,
Why is Joe Biden’s Department of Justice continuing Donald Trump’s persecution of WikiLeaks founder, publisher and journalist Julian Assange? Barack Obama, concerned about threats to the First Amendment freedom of the press, decided against indicting Assange for exposing U.S. war crimes. Trump did indict Assange, under Espionage Act charges that could garner him 175 years in prison. A British district judge denied Trump’s request for Assange’s extradition from the U.K. to the United States because of the extremely high likelihood that it would lead Assange to commit suicide. Trump appealed the denial of extradition. Instead of dropping Trump’s extradition request, Biden is vigorously pursuing his predecessor’s appeal against Assange, which the U.K. High Court will hear on October 27 and 28.

A Guide To The US Government’s Appeal In The Assange Extradition Case

October 26, 2021 Kevin Gosztola, The Dissenter. , , ,
London - On October 27, the High Court of Justice in the United Kingdom will hear the Crown Prosecution Service argue on behalf of the United States government that a lower court improperly blocked the U.S. from extraditing WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. The proceedings in London are expected to last two days and will involve five grounds for appeal that were previously approved by the High Court of Justice. (Two were reinstated by the court after a hearing on August 11.) District Court Judge Vanessa Baraitser ruled on January 4 that Assange’s mental health was such that it would be “oppressive to extradite him” to the U.S. But two days later, she accepted the U.S. government’s objections and ordered him to remain in jail while her decision was appealed.

The US Will Break Any Laws To Protect The Elites: The Saab And Assange Cases

October 25, 2021 Margaret Flowers, Clearing the FOG. , , ,
The United States government demonstrates repeatedly that it will do whatever it takes to protect the economic and political interests of the elites, even if it means total disregard for human rights and international law. Two cases that highlight this are the recent kidnapping and prosecution of Venezuelan diplomat Alex Saab and the attempts to extradite the Australian Wikileaks publisher and journalist Julian Assange. Clearing the FOG speaks with Roger Harris of Task Force on the Americas who travelled to Cabo Verde where Saab was detained and tortured for over a year before his rendition to Miami and with Joe Lauria, the editor of Consortium News, who has covered the case of Julian Assange extensively.

The Julian Assange Case

October 24, 2021 Chris Hedges, RT. , , ,
The most recent revelations, coupled with the numerous legal anomalies of the Assange case, including leaks that show that the Spanish security firm at Ecuador’s Embassy in London, where Assange sought refuge for seven years, turned over recordings of his meetings with his lawyers to the CIA, amply illustrate that the judicial pantomime carried out against Assange is a political persecution led by the US government and the CIA because of embarrassing and damaging revelations about the inner workings of the US military, intelligence agencies, and the political class repeatedly exposed by Assange and WikiLeaks. The goal of the US government is to shut down WikiLeaks and organizations like it, and to make an example of Assange, who, if he is extradited to the United States, faces 175 years in prison, to dissuade others who might consider replicating his courageous reporting. The upcoming appeals hearing is on October 27 and 28 at Britain’s High Court, London.
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