Extradition

Assange Extradition And The War On Journalism

September 10, 2020 Chris Hedges, ScheerPost.com. Educate! Extradition, Freedom of Press, Julian Assange, Wikileaks

A webinar/press conference organized by the late Kevin Zeese for PopularResistance.org streamed live on Sept. 9, 2020. The attempt to extradite Julian Assange to the United States for prosecution is a war against freedom of the press and our right to know. If the prosecution of Assange under the Espionage Act occurs, it will define journalism for the 21st Century. No journalist or publisher who exposes war crimes or corruption will be safe.

Expert Tells Court, Charges Against Assange Are Unconstitutional

September 10, 2020 Mohamed Elmaazi, Sputnik News. Educate! Extradition, First Amendment, Julian Assange, Wikileaks

It is immaterial whether one considers Julian Assange to be a reporter because he was engaged in "journalistic activity" when obtaining and publishing classified US documents, the director of the Freedom of the Press Foundation told the court on day three of the WikiLeaks publisher's extradition hearing. The US indictment against WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange represents an "unconstitutional" threat to the First Amendment of the United States constitution and to press freedom more generally, Professor Trevor Timm told the Old Bailey on Wednesday.

Julian Assange Hearing: Day Three

September 9, 2020 Defend Wikileaks. Educate! Extradition, Freedom of Press, Julian Assange, Wikileaks

Paul Rogers, Emeritus Professor of Peace Studies at Bradford University, took the stand by video link to testify about Julian Assange’s political views and how they factor into the Trump administration’s prosecution of Assange for publishing. Rogers reviewed Assange’s speeches, including an anti-war speech in 2011 in London and a speech to the UN following the release of Iraq and Afghan war logs, as well as Mairead Maguire’s nomination of Assange for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019. LINKs. Rogers concluded that Assange’s views don’t fall into traditional liberal or conservative belief systems but are rather more libertarian, anti-war, and based on values of transparency and accountability.

John Pilger: The Stalinist Trial Of Julian Assange

September 9, 2020 John Pilger, Mintpress News. Educate! Extradition, Freedom of Press, Julian Assange, Wikileaks

When I first met Julian Assange more than ten years ago, I asked him why he had started WikiLeaks. He replied: “Transparency and accountability are moral issues that must be the essence of public life and journalism.” I had never heard a publisher or an editor invoke morality in this way. Assange believes that journalists are the agents of people, not power: that we, the people, have a right to know about the darkest secrets of those who claim to act in our name. If the powerful lie to us, we have the right to know.

Assange Hearing: Dramatic Opening Day

September 8, 2020 Consortium News. Educate! Extradition, Julian Assange, Press Freedom, Wikileaks

The dramatic first day of the resumption of Julian Assange’s extradition hearing has ended, with technical problems cutting short the testimony of the first defense witness, Broadcast Journalism Professor Mark Feldstein. Feldstein’s written testimony has been released to the public. On the virtual “stand”–online because of the pandemic–Feldstein was questioned by the defense. He testified that it was a daily occurrence for the press to publish classified information; that he did not expect publishers to be prosecuted for this because the First Amendment protects publishers, allowing them to expose the inner workings of government that citizens have a right to know.

War On Journalism Resumes On Monday

September 7, 2020 Nozomi Hayase, Commondreams. Educate! Extradition, Julian Assange, Press Freedom, Wikileaks

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s extradition hearing is set to start on Monday, Sept. 7 at the Old Bailey, the Central Criminal Court of London, and could last three or four weeks. Assange has been indicted on 17 charges of espionage and one charge of conspiring with a source to violate the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act for his reporting on the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the torture at Guantanamo Bay. These charges against Assange are a part of a war on journalism. This is the first time that the Espionage Act of 1917 has been used to prosecute a journalist, in this case an Australian citizen publishing material from outside of the U.S.

US Determined To Make Assange Pay For Exposing The Cruelty Of Its War

September 3, 2020 By Vijay Prashad, Globetrotter. Educate! Extradition, Julian Assange, Wars and Militarism, Wikileaks

The hearing that Assange will face has nothing to do with the reasons for his arrest from the embassy of Ecuador in London on April 11, 2019. He was arrested that day for his failure to surrender in 2012 to the British authorities, who would have extradited him to Sweden; in Sweden, at that time, there were accusations of sexual offenses against Assange that were dropped in November 2019. Indeed, after the Swedish authorities decided not to pursue Assange, he should have been released by the UK government. But he was not. The true reason for the arrest was never the charge in Sweden; it was the desire of the U.S. government to have him brought to the United States on a range of charges. All these years later, that war remains alive and well in a courtroom in London; there Julian Assange—who revealed the truth of the killing—will struggle against being one more casualty of the U.S. war on Iraq.

Documentary – The War On Journalism: The Case Of Julian Assange

September 2, 2020 Consortium News. Resistance Report Extradition, Journalism, Julian Assange, Wikileaks

Journalists are under attack globally for doing their jobs. Julian Assange is facing a 175 year sentence for publishing if extradited to the United States. The Trump administration has gone from denigrating journalists as ‘enemies of the people’ to now criminalizing common practices in journalism that have long served the public interest. Imprisoned WikiLeaks founder and editor Assange’s extradition is being sought by the Trump administration, in a hearing to begin Sept. 7, for publishing U.S. government documents, which exposed war crimes and human rights abuses.

Assange ‘In A Lot Of Pain’ Says Partner After Prison Visit

August 29, 2020 Alan Jones, The Irish Examiner. Educate! Extradition, Julian Assange, Prison abuse, Wikileaks

Julian Assange’s partner has visited him in prison for the first time in almost six months, and said he looked much thinner than last time she saw him. Stella Moris took the couple’s two young children to meet their father, who is being held in Belmarsh Prison in south-east London, awaiting an extradition hearing on behalf of the United States government. Ms Moris and the WikiLeaks founder had to wear face masks and visors for the 20-minute meeting and were not allowed to touch each other. “We had to keep social distancing and Julian was told he would have to self-isolate for two weeks if he touched the children. Julian said it was the first time he had been given a mask because things are very different behind the doors. I could not see him very clearly because of the visors, but he looked a lot thinner."

Torturing Assange: An Interview With Andrew Fowler

August 21, 2020 John Kendall Hawkins, Counterpunch. Educate! Extradition, Julian Assange, Torture, Wikileaks

Andrew Fowler is an Australian award-winning investigative journalist and a former reporter for the ABC’s Foreign Correspondent and Four Corners programs. and the author of The Most Dangerous Man in the World: Julian Assange and WikiLeaks’ Fight for Freedom. This is an updated edition of his 2011 account of the rise and political imprisonment of Assange. Much of that account explained how Assange seemingly inevitably moved toward an adversarial positioning against American imperialism abroad. He was a tonic for the indifference expressed by so many ordinary Americans in the traumatic aftermath of 9/11 and the rise of the surveillance state. Boston Legal’s Alan Shore (James Spader) seems to sum it up succinctly. His updated version discusses the torture Assange is currently undergoing at Belmarsh prison in Britain.

‘What Happens If Julian Assange Dies In A British Prison?’

August 18, 2020 By Tareq Haddad. Educate! Extradition, Julian Assange, Prison abuse, Prosecutorial Abuse

For Assange however, justice delayed is not only justice denied. With global attention shifting from Wuhan to Washington, from Minneapolis to Lebanon, the father of two young children has spent another five months in incarceration without access to lawyers or family visitations. It follows what is approaching ten years of what the United Nations has repeatedly labeled arbitrary detention – the British government has so far failed to respond to three separate U.N. reports and correspondences on the matter. Serena Tinari, a Switzerland-based investigative journalist, condemned Britain’s handling of the case. “How can the U.K. behave in this way?” she said following Friday’s hearing. “It is unacceptable. It’s a travesty of justice. No access to lawyers for months?

International Lawyers Make Urgent Appeal To British Government

August 17, 2020 Lawyers for Assange, Consortium News. Resist! Due Process, Extradition, Julian Assange, Prosecutorial Abuse

We write to you as legal practitioners and legal academics to express our collective concerns about the violations of Mr. Julian Assange’s fundamental human, civil and political rights and the precedent his persecution is setting. We call on you to act in accordance with national and international law, human rights and the rule of law by bringing an end to the ongoing extradition proceedings and granting Mr. Assange his long overdue freedom – freedom from torture, arbitrary detention and deprivation of liberty, and political persecution. We remind the UK government that the right to a fair trial is a cornerstone of democracy and the rule of law. It is a basic human right. These provisions, along with long-standing common law principles, demand a fair and public hearing before an independent and impartial tribunal, the presumption of innocence until proven guilty, the right to be informed promptly and in detail of the nature and cause of the charges, the right to be provided with adequate time and facilities for the preparation of one’s defence, and the right to have the ability to communicate with one’s counsel.

Assange Wins Award, Appears In Court Facing New Charges

August 4, 2020 Thomas Scripps, WSWS Resist! Extradition, Julian Assaange, Media, Wikileaks

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s case management hearing yesterday continued the travesty of legal due process to which he has been subjected for more than a decade. The journalist and publisher is fighting extradition to the United States, where he faces politically motivated frame-up charges of espionage with a combined potential sentence of 175 years. He has not attended hearings via videolink for the last three months on the advice of doctors, due to his fragile state of health and the threat of exposure to coronavirus. At the previous hearing on June 29, District Judge Vanessa Baraitser had scolded Assange for not being present, demanding medical evidence to justify his non-appearance in future. But yesterday, Baraitser ruled the hearing could go ahead without Assange after Belmarsh prison disrupted his plans to attend. Prison authorities claimed to have forgotten to arrange videolink facilities for the world-famous political prisoner.

UK Government Refuses To Release Information About Assange Judge Who Has 96% Extradition Record

August 3, 2020 Matt Kennard and Mark Curtis, Daily Maverick. Educate! Extradition, Judicial Abuse, Julian Assange, Wikileaks

Declassified has also discovered that the judge, Vanessa Baraitser, has ordered extradition in 96% of the cases she has presided over for which information is publicly available. Baraitser was appointed a district judge in October 2011 based at the Chief Magistrate’s Office in London, after being admitted as a solicitor in 1994. Next to no other information is available about her in the public domain. A request under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) was sent by Declassified to the Ministry of Justice (MOJ) on 28 February 2020 requesting a list of all the cases on which Baraitser has ruled since she was appointed in 2011. The MOJ noted in response that it was obliged to send a reply within 20 working days. Two months later, on 29 April 2020, an information officer at the HM Courts and Tribunals Service responded that it could “confirm” that it held “some of the information that you have requested”. But the request was rejected since the officer claimed it was not consistent with the Constitutional Reform Act. “The judiciary is not a public body for the purposes of FOIA… and requests asking to disclose all the cases a named judge ruled on are therefore outside the scope of the FOIA,” the officer stated.

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