Extradition

Julian Assange’s Day In Court

February 22, 2024 Chris Hedges, Consortium News. Educate! CIA, Extradition, Julian Assange, Press Freedom, United Kingdom (UK), Wikileaks

By the afternoon on Tuesday the video link, which would have allowed Julian Assange to follow his final U.K. appeal to prevent his extradition, had been turned off. Julian, his attorneys said, was too ill to attend, too ill even to follow the court proceedings on a link, although it was possible he was no longer interested in sitting through another judicial lynching. The rectangular screen, tucked under the black wrought iron bars that enclosed the upper left-hand corner balcony of the courtroom where Julian would have been caged as a defendant, was perhaps a metaphor for the emptiness of this long and convoluted judicial pantomime.

Day One: Assange Timeline Exposes US Motives

February 21, 2024 Joe Lauria, Consortium News. Educate! Appeal, Extradition, Julian Assange, United Kingdoms, Wikileaks

On Day One of Julian Assange’s attempt to appeal Britain’s order to extradite him to the United States, his lawyers laid out a timeline that exposed U.S. motives to destroy the journalist who revealed their high-level state crimes. Before two High Court judges in the cramped, wood-paneled Courtroom 5 at the Royal Courts of Justice, Assange’s lawyers argued on Tuesday that two judges had seriously erred in the case on a number of grounds necessitating an appeal of the home secretary’s decision to extradite Assange to the United States. High to the left of the court, next to oak shelves with neat rows of law books, was an empty iron cage. The court said it had invited Assange to either attend in person or via video link from Belmarsh Prison, where he has been locked up on remand for nearly five years.

UK High Court Finally Hears Assange’s Request For An Appeal

February 21, 2024 Mohamed Elmaazi, The Dissenter. Educate! Extradition, Julian Assange, United Kingdom (UK), Wikileaks

The United States government's prosecution of Julian Assange represents an attempt to punish Assange and WikiLeaks for exposing the criminality of the U.S. government on a “massive and unprecedented scale,” lawyers for the WikiLeaks publisher told two senior judges at the British High Court of Justice. Crimes exposed by the WikiLeaks publications that are central to this case include “torture,” “[extraordinary] rendition,” and “drone strikes” that killed scores of civilians. Assange is seeking permission to appeal District Judge Vanessa Baraitser’s extradition decision, which was issued in January 2021. Barristers Mark Summers KC and Edward Fitzgerald KC set out seven grounds for challenging the ruling.

The Assange ‘Death Plots’

February 20, 2024 Kellie Tranter, Consortium News. Educate! CIA, Extradition, Julian Assange, Wikileaks

Documents obtained under freedom-of-information applications have revealed a worrying side to official Australian efforts regarding WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. In September 2021, DFAT [Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade] became aware of media reports detailing C.I.A. planning to murder Assange in London. The plot revealed to journalists working for Yahoo News, who spoke to over 30 intelligence sources, involved consideration by the C.I.A. of plans to poison Assange in the Ecuadorian embassy or to shoot him should he attempt to flee.

Day X Protests To Free Assange

February 19, 2024 Assange Defense. Resist! Extradition, Journalism, Julian Assange, Press Freedom, Wikileaks

Day X is here: February 20-21, imprisoned publisher Julian Assange returns to court in London for his final bid to appeal his extradition to the United States where he would face life in prison for publishing truthful information in the public interest. Human rights leaders and civil liberties groups around the world are again warning that the prosecution of Assange threatens journalism everywhere. In this month alone, a UN Special Rapporteur, leading press freedom groups, over 35 U.S. law professors, and the Australian Parliament have called for an end to the prosecution of Julian Assange.

Julian Assange’s Final Appeal

February 19, 2024 Chris Hedges, Consortium News. Educate! Extradition, Julian Assange, Press Freedom, United Kingdom (UK), Wikileaks

If Julian Assange is denied permission to appeal his extradition to the United States before a panel of two judges at the High Court in London this week, he will have no recourse left within the British legal system. His lawyers can ask the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) for a stay of execution under Rule 39, which is given in “exceptional circumstances” and “only where there is an imminent risk of irreparable harm.” But it is far from certain that the British court will agree. It may order Julian’s immediate extradition prior to a Rule 39 instruction or may decide to ignore a request from the ECtHR to allow Julian to have his case heard by the court.

Australia Approves Motion Urging Britain To Return Julian Assange

February 14, 2024 Doug Cunningham, Yahoo News. Resist! Australia, Britain, Extradition, Julian Assange, Press Freedom, United Kingdom (UK)

Australia's prime minister and federal members of Parliament approved a motion Wednesday to return Wikileaks founder Julian Assange to Australia. MP Andrew Wilkie introduced the motion arguing that Assange should be freed from a British prison where he has spent nearly five years and returned to Australia as Britain's High Court will hear Assange's appeal next week against his extradition to the United States on espionage charges. "It will send a very powerful political signal to the British government and to the U.S. government that the British government should not entertain the idea of Mr. Assange being extradited to the U.S.," Wilkie said Wednesday in parliament, noting Assange faces up to 175 years in prison if convicted on the U.S. charges.

Countdown To Day X: Denying Assange’s Freedom Of Expression

February 14, 2024 Kevin Gosztola, The Dissenter. Educate! Extradition, Freedom of Press, Journalism, Julian Assange

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and his legal team assert that extradition to the United States would be a “flagrant denial” of his rights to freedom of expression because the charges criminalize Assange for engaging in journalism. When Assange was first charged, Ben Wizner of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and Jameel Jaffer of the Knight First Amendment Institute declared, “The [computer offense] characterizes everyday journalistic practices as part of a criminal conspiracy. Cultivating a source, protecting a source’s identity, communicating with a source securely—the indictment describes all of these activities as the ‘manners and means’ of the conspiracy.”

Dear Mr. High Commissioner: Help Free Assange

February 10, 2024 Christophe Peschoux, Consortium News. Resist! Extradition, Human Rights, Julian Assange, Legal System, Press Freedom, Wikileaks

On 20-21 February, a High Court in London will decide Julian Assange’s fate: freedom or death. Two judges will decide whether the WikiLeaks founder will still be able to lodge an ultimate appeal, or will end his days in an American jail. Mr. Assange has committed no crime. His only fault is to have revealed some of the crimes of the powerful of our time. Lèse majesté crime! American wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere have destroyed millions of lives and ruined these countries for generations to come. No one has been prosecuted. On the contrary, these crimes have been covered up with impunity in the United States. And yet Mr. Assange is being punished for having published evidence of some of them. Political justice.

Assange’s Very Life Is At Stake

February 5, 2024 Mary Kostakidis, Consortium News. Educate! Extradition, health, Julian Assange, Press Freedom, United Kingdom (UK), Wikileaks

In Julian Assange’s extradition case, Magistrate Judge Venessa Baraitser determined he would not survive imprisonment in a U.S. Supermax facility – that he is very likely to commit suicide. One of the final witnesses in the 4 week extradition trial in 2020 was an American lawyer whose client Abu Hamza was held in ADX Colorado where Julian is likely to be sent. Abu Hamza has no hands. He was extradited from the U.K. following assurances by the U.S. that the prison system was able to deal with the special requirements of such a prisoner. His lawyer testified that despite assurances he would not be placed in total isolation, that is indeed where he was kept, under Special Administrative Measures, and the U.S. had also failed to delivered on other undertakings to protect his human rights – he did not have a toilet in his cell he could operate – he was stripped of all dignity, contrary to guarantees.

In Assange’s Darkest Hour, Committee To Protect Journalists Excludes Him

January 23, 2024 Kevin Gosztola, The Dissenter. Educate! Extradition, Journalists, Julian Assange, Press Freedom, Wikileaks

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) released its census report for 2023. Three hundred and twenty detained or imprisoned journalists were counted by the press freedom organization, as of December 1, 2023. As indicated, that number is not far from the record high of 360 jailed journalists that was set in 2022. The 2023 census takes on greater significance given the Israeli government’s war on Gaza and the military attacks and crackdown on Palestinian journalists. Seventeen journalists were jailed by Israel, the “highest number of arrests” since CPJ began tracking arrests in 1992. It is the first time that Israel has “ranked among the top six offenders.”

Parliamentarians Launch Urgent Bid To Spare Assange From US Extradition

January 15, 2024 Matthew Knott, The Sydney Morning Herald. Resist! Australia, Extradition, Julian Assange, Press Freedom

Australian politicians across the political divide have launched a last-ditch bid to prevent Julian Assange from being extradited to the United States to face espionage charges as the WikiLeaks founder faces a crucial final legal challenge in Britain next month. The four co-convenors of the cross-party Bring Julian Assange Home Parliamentary Group wrote to British Home Secretary James Cleverly arguing for an urgent review of Assange’s case. This was in light of a judgment in the Supreme Court of the UK in November, striking down Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s controversial plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda.

Bill Introduced In House Calls For US To Drop Charges Against Assange

January 7, 2024 Dave DeCamp, Scheer Post. Organize! Biden administration, Congress, Criminal Justice and Prisons, Extradition, Julian Assange, Press Freedom

A resolution introduced in the House last month calls for the US to drop the charges against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who faces up to 175 years in prison if extradited to the US and convicted for journalism that exposed US war crimes. The bill, introduced by Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ), expresses “the sense of the House of Representatives that regular journalistic activities, including the obtainment and publication of information, are protected under the First Amendment and that the federal government should drop all charges against and attempts to extradite Julian Assange.”

Biden Is Trump’s Poodle

December 20, 2023 Colonel (Ret) Ann Wright, Popular Resistance. Educate! Extradition, Joe Biden, Julian Assange, Press Freedom

Biden, you defeated Trump, yet your administration has NOT rolled back all of the evil caused by Trump. Take the case of journalist Julian Assange. Under the Obama administration of which you, Biden, were Vice-President for 8 years, journalist and publisher Julian Assange was NOT prosecuted for publishing the Collateral Damage video of the U.S. Army murder by hellfire missile of Reuters reporters nor the classified Afghanistan and the Iraq war files. However, you and the Obama administration did prosecute and won conviction of U.S. Army PFC Bradley Manning for disclosing those classified materials.

Assange Appeal Hearing Set For February

December 19, 2023 Joe Lauria, Consortium News. Educate! Extradition, Joe Biden, Julian Assange, Press Freedom, Whistleblowers

Imprisoned publisher Julian Assange will face two High Court judges over two days on Feb. 20-21, 2024 in London in what will likely be his last appeal against being extradited to the United States to face charges of violating the Espionage Act. Assange’s wife Stella Assange confirmed that the hearing will take place at the Royal Courts of Justice. Assange had had an earlier request to appeal rejected by High Court Judge Jonathan Swift on June 6. Assange then filed an application to appeal that decision and the dates have now been set. Assange is seeking to challenge both the home secretary’s decision to extradite him as well as to cross appeal the decision by the lower court judge, Vanessa Baraitser.

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