WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s listening to on the British Excessive Courtroom in London for his attainable closing enchantment difficult his extradition to the U.S. concluded on Wednesday. The courtroom shouldn’t be anticipated to decide on the Australian writer’s destiny till no less than subsequent month.
The 2-day enchantment listening to earlier than a panel of two judges wrapped up after U.S. legal professionals delivered arguments, as they search to have Assange, 52, despatched to the U.S. to face espionage prices for publishing labeled U.S. army paperwork 14 years in the past.
Lawyer Clair Dobbin, representing the U.S. authorities, claimed the case is predicated on “law, on evidence” and “not political inspiration,” pushing again on accusations that Assange’s prosecution is politically motivated.
“Julian is a political prisoner, and he has to be released,” Assange’s spouse, Stella, mentioned in a speech outdoors the courtroom.
Stella Assange, spouse of Julian Assange, speaks moreover a poster of Julian Assange on the Royal Courts of Justice in London, Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2024. (AP)
The judges overseeing the case, Victoria Sharp and Jeremy Johnson, mentioned Wednesday they might take time to come back to a verdict, and a ruling on Assange’s destiny shouldn’t be anticipated till March on the earliest.
Whereas the listening to may very well be Assange’s closing enchantment trying to dam his extradition to the U.S., a full enchantment listening to might come sooner or later if he wins in courtroom this week. If he loses this enchantment, Assange’s solely remaining choice can be on the European Court of Human Rights, however his supporters concern he may very well be flown to the U.S. earlier than that occurs as a result of the British authorities has already signed an extradition order.
Dobbin purported that Assange put harmless lives in danger and went past journalism in his efforts to acquire and publish labeled U.S. authorities paperwork. She claims Assange inspired and helped U.S. Military intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning steal diplomatic cables and army recordsdata that WikiLeaks revealed, and that doing so jeopardized lives.
However there is no such thing as a proof that WikiLeaks put anybody in peril by publishing the paperwork. It’s also a standard follow amongst journalists to ask a supply to offer extra materials.
Dobbin claimed that Assange broken U.S. safety and intelligence companies and “created a grave and imminent risk” by publishing a whole lot of 1000’s of paperwork. She mentioned these dangers might hurt and result in the arbitrary detention of harmless individuals, together with many who lived in warfare zones or beneath repressive regimes.
She mentioned Assange encouraging Manning and others to hack into authorities computer systems and steal materials meant that the WikiLeaks founder was “going a very considerable way beyond” a journalist gathering data.
Assange was “not someone who has just set up an online box to which people can provide classified information,” she mentioned. “The allegations are that he sought to encourage theft and hacking that would benefit WikiLeaks.”
Legal professionals for Assange argued throughout day one of many listening to on Tuesday that U.S. authorities are searching for to punish him for WikiLeaks’ “exposure of criminality on the part of the U.S. government on an unprecedented scale,” together with torture and killings.
If he’s extradited to the U.S., lawyer Edward Fitzgerald warned, there may be “a real risk he may suffer a flagrant denial of justice.”
Julian Assange’s legal professionals are on their closing U.Okay. authorized problem to cease the WikiLeaks founder from being despatched to the U.S. to face spying prices. (AP)
Dobbin mentioned the First Modification doesn’t grant immunity to journalists who break the legislation and that media shops that went via the method of redacting the paperwork earlier than publishing them should not being prosecuted.
Journalists positioned outdoors of England and Wales, together with from Fox Information Digital, have been denied entry to look at the listening to remotely. Journalists who have been permitted entry, both remotely or in particular person, had bother at occasions listening to legal professionals throughout Wednesday’s arguments.
Ought to he be extradited to the U.S. after exhausting all his authorized appeals, Assange would face trial in Alexandria, Virginia, and may very well be sentenced to as much as 175 years in an American maximum-security jail. His supporters have lengthy argued that he wouldn’t obtain a good trial if he’s extradited.
“We’ve essentially heard nothing new from the U.S. government’s legal representation in this hearing,” worldwide nonprofit Reporters With out Borders mentioned in an announcement Wednesday. “Rather than addressing the compelling new arguments made by Assange’s defence, they have doubled down on their longstanding claims that Assange’s actions do not qualify as journalistic activity and that he will be given a fair trial in the U.S.”
“The facts of the matter remain: the publication by WikiLeaks in 2010 of the leaked classified documents exposed information that was in the public interest and informed journalism around the world,” the assertion continued. “The prosecutor and other US officials have stated that as a foreign national, Assange will not be afforded First Amendment protections. Combined with the fact that the Espionage Act has no public interest defence, that means he cannot get a fair trial.”
Assange was absent from courtroom on Tuesday and Wednesday due to well being points. His household has raised issues about his bodily and psychological well being, with Stella Assange telling reporters that her husband’s life is in danger each day he stays in jail and that she believes he’ll die if he is extradited to the U.S.
Earlier this month, U.N. Particular Rapporteur on Torture, Alice Jill Edwards, called on the U.K. government to halt the attainable extradition of Assange over issues that he can be vulnerable to therapy amounting to torture or different types of ill-treatment or punishment.
BIPARTISAN CONGRESSIONAL RESOLUTION CALLS ON US OFFICIALS TO DROP CHARGES AGAINST ASSANGE
Final month, a gaggle of Australian lawmakers wrote a letter to U.Okay. House Secretary James Cleverly demanding Assange’s U.S. extradition be halted over issues about his security and well-being, urging the U.Okay. authorities to as an alternative make an impartial evaluation of Assange’s threat of persecution.
Assange is going through 17 prices for allegedly receiving, possessing and speaking labeled data to the general public beneath the Espionage Act, and one cost alleging a conspiracy to commit laptop intrusion.
The costs have been introduced by the Trump administration’s Justice Division over WikiLeaks’ 2010 publication of cables leaked by Manning detailing warfare crimes dedicated by the U.S. authorities in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, detention camp. The supplies additionally uncovered cases of the CIA participating in torture and rendition.
WikiLeaks’ “Collateral Murder” video exhibiting the U.S. army gunning down civilians in Iraq, together with two Reuters journalists, was additionally revealed 14 years in the past.
Assange has been held at London’s high-security Belmarsh Prison since he was faraway from the Ecuadorian Embassy on April 11, 2019, for breaching bail situations. He had sought asylum on the embassy since 2012 to keep away from being despatched to Sweden over allegations he raped two girls as a result of Sweden wouldn’t present assurances it could defend him from extradition to the U.S. The investigations into the sexual assault allegations have been ultimately dropped.
A protester holds a poster on the Royal Courts of Justice in London, Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2024. (AP)
A U.Okay. District Decide rejected the U.S. extradition request in 2021 on the grounds that Assange was prone to kill himself if he was held beneath harsh U.S. jail situations. Increased courts later overturned that call after receiving assurances from the U.S. about his therapy, and the British authorities signed an extradition order in June 2022.
One in all Assange’s legal professionals, Mark Summers, mentioned Tuesday there was proof exhibiting that there had been a plan to kidnap or homicide Assange whereas he was within the Ecuadorean Embassy and former President Trump had requested “detailed options” to kill him.
“Senior CIA officials requested plans, the president himself requested on being provided with options on how to do it and sketches were even drawn up,” Summers mentioned.
The CIA beneath the Trump administration allegedly had plans to kill Assange over the publication of delicate company hacking instruments generally known as “Vault 7,” which have been leaked to WikiLeaks, Yahoo reported in 2021. The company mentioned the leak represented “the largest data loss in CIA history.”
The company was accused of getting discussions “at the highest levels” of the administration about plans to assassinate Assange in London and allegedly adopted orders from then-CIA director Mike Pompeo to attract up kill “sketches” and “options.” The CIA additionally had superior plans to kidnap and rendition Assange, and had made a political resolution to cost him, in accordance with the Yahoo report.
Whereas he was within the embassy, the CIA was uncovered for spying on Assange and his legal professionals. A decide just lately dominated {that a} lawsuit introduced in opposition to the CIA for spying on his guests can transfer ahead.
“They’re putting Julian into the hands of the country and of the people who plotted his assassination,” Stella Assange mentioned.
The Obama administration in 2013 determined to not indict Assange over WikiLeaks’ 2010 publication of labeled cables as a result of it could have needed to additionally indict journalists from main information shops who revealed the identical supplies, which has been described as “The New York Times problem.” Former President Obama additionally commuted Manning’s 35-year sentence for violations of the Espionage Act and different offenses to seven years in January 2017, and Manning, who had been imprisoned since 2010, was launched later that yr.
However the Justice Division beneath former President Trump later moved to indict Assange beneath the Espionage Act, and the Biden administration has continued to pursue his prosecution.
UK HIGH COURT SETS DATE FOR JULIAN ASSANGE’S FINAL APPEAL CHALLENGING US EXTRADITION
Assange has been combating extradition for greater than a decade, together with seven years in self-exile within the Ecuadorian Embassy in London and the final 5 years in a high-security jail. (AP)
No writer had been charged beneath the Espionage Act till Assange, and lots of press freedom teams have mentioned his prosecution units a harmful precedent supposed to criminalize journalism.
In 2022, the editors and publishers of U.S. and European shops that labored with Assange on the publication of excerpts from the greater than 250,000 paperwork he obtained within the Cablegate leak – The Guardian, The New York Instances, Le Monde, Der Spiegel and El País – wrote an open letter calling for the U.S. to drop the fees in opposition to Assange.
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An editor for The Guardian additionally revealed an editorial on Sunday saying that the outlet opposes Assange’s U.S. extradition as a result of doing so can be a risk to each the WikiLeaks founder and journalism.
There have additionally been multiple efforts made by lawmakers within the U.S. and Australia within the final yr to demand Assange’s freedom, together with a vote final week by which the Australian Parliament overwhelmingly supported calling on the U.S. and U.Okay. Governments to finish Assange’s prosecution and a decision launched final month within the U.S. Home calling for him to be launched.
The Related Press contributed to this report.
