WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s listening to on the British Excessive Courtroom in London for his attainable last attraction difficult his extradition to the U.S. started on Tuesday whereas supporters of the Australian writer held rallies all over the world demanding he be launched from jail.
The primary day of the two-day listening to earlier than a panel of two judges wrapped on Tuesday, and arguments will resume on Wednesday. This listening to might be Assange’s last attraction trying to dam his extradition to the U.S. to face espionage costs for publishing categorized U.S. army paperwork, though a full attraction listening to may come sooner or later if he wins in court docket this week.
”Mr. Assange is being prosecuted for partaking in bizarre journalistic practices of acquiring and publishing categorized data which is true and of public curiosity,” Assange’s lead lawyer, Edward Fitzgerald, advised the court docket.
If he loses this attraction, Assange’s solely remaining possibility could be on the European Courtroom of Human Rights, and his spouse, Stella, mentioned his legal professionals would apply to the European judges for an emergency injunction if essential. She advised reporters that her husband’s life is in danger day-after-day he stays in jail and that she believes he’ll die if he is extradited to the U.S.
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s listening to on the British Excessive Courtroom in London for his attainable last attraction difficult his extradition kicked off on Tuesday. (Fox Information Digital/Landon Mion)
Ought to he be extradited to the U.S. after exhausting all his authorized appeals, Assange would face trial in Alexandria, Virginia, and might be sentenced to as much as 175 years in an American maximum-security jail.
Journalists positioned exterior of England and Wales, together with from Fox Information Digital, had been denied entry to look at the listening to remotely.
Assange, 52, was absent from court docket on Tuesday as a result of he was ”not nicely,” Fitzgerald advised the Excessive Courtroom. His household has expressed concern over his well being and security up to now, and people fears had been emphasised once more when the Australian journalist was not in a position to make it to the courtroom.
”I’m very involved that Julian was not nicely sufficient to attend court docket right this moment,” Assange’s brother, Gabriel Shipton, advised Fox Information Digital.
A U.Ok. 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 circumstances. Greater 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.
U.N. Particular Rapporteur on Torture, Alice Jill Edwards, referred to as on the U.Ok. authorities earlier this month to halt the attainable extradition of Assange over considerations that he could be vulnerable to therapy amounting to torture or different types of ill-treatment or punishment.
Final month, a bunch of Australian lawmakers wrote a letter to U.Ok. Dwelling Secretary James Cleverly demanding Assange’s U.S. extradition be halted over considerations about his security and well-being, urging the U.Ok. authorities to as an alternative make an unbiased evaluation of Assange’s threat of persecution.
Assange is dealing with 17 costs for allegedly receiving, possessing and speaking categorized data to the general public beneath the Espionage Act, and one cost alleging a conspiracy to commit pc intrusion.
The fees had been introduced by the Trump administration’s Justice Division over WikiLeaks’ 2010 publication of cables leaked by U.S. Military intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning detailing conflict 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 partaking in torture and rendition.
WikiLeaks’ ”Collateral Homicide” video displaying the U.S. army gunning down civilians in Iraq, together with two Reuters journalists, was additionally printed 14 years in the past.
Assange has been held at London’s high-security Belmarsh Jail since he was faraway from the Ecuadorian Embassy on April 11, 2019, for breaching bail circumstances. He had sought asylum on the embassy since 2012 to keep away from being despatched to Sweden over allegations he raped two ladies as a result of Sweden wouldn’t present assurances it could shield him from extradition to the U.S. The investigations into the sexual assault allegations had been finally dropped.
One other one in every of Assange’s legal professionals, Mark Summers, claimed there was proof displaying that there had been a ”actually breathtaking plan” to kidnap or homicide Assange whereas he was within the Ecuadorean Embassy and former President Trump had requested ”detailed choices” to kill him.
”Senior CIA officers requested plans, the president himself requested on being supplied with choices on how one can do it and sketches had been 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 often known as ”Vault 7,” which had been leaked to WikiLeaks, Yahoo reported in 2021. The company mentioned the leak represented ”the biggest information loss in CIA historical past.”
The company was accused of getting discussions ”on the highest ranges” 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 ”choices.” The CIA additionally had superior plans to kidnap and rendition Assange, and had made a political resolution to cost him, based on the Yahoo report.
Whereas he was within the embassy, the CIA was uncovered for spying on Assange and his legal professionals. A choose just lately dominated {that a} lawsuit introduced in opposition to the CIA for spying on his guests can transfer ahead.
”It was the primary time that Julian’s legal professionals had been in a position to argue the political points of his prosecution in court docket, particularly the efforts of Mike Pompeo and his campaign in opposition to Julian,” Shipton advised Fox Information Digital of Tuesday’s listening to. ”How he weaponized the DOJ to judicial kidnap Julian from the Ecuadorian Embassy, recorded conferences along with his lawyer and even plotted to homicide him.”
UK HIGH COURT SETS DATE FOR JULIAN ASSANGE’S FINAL APPEAL CHALLENGING US EXTRADITION
Stella Assange mentioned her husband’s life is in danger day-after-day he stays in jail and that she believes he’ll die if he is extradited to the U.S. (Reuters)
”Quickly it will likely be as much as the U.Ok. to determine whether or not they make a stand without cost speech or they ship Julian to the usA. to face attainable torture and demise,” he continued.
U.S. legal professionals mentioned of their written submissions that their case was ”persistently and repeatedly misrepresented” by Assange’s authorized staff. The U.S. legal professionals mentioned Assange was not being prosecuted for publication of the leaked supplies, however for aiding and conspiring with Manning to unlawfully receive them and subsequently disclosing names of sources and ”placing these people at grave threat of hurt.”
There isn’t a proof that WikiLeaks publishing the paperwork put anybody at risk.
State Division spokesperson Mathew Miller was pressed about Assange’s listening to at a briefing on Tuesday, and Miller declined to enter element, however did declare that the WikiLeaks founder helped Manning hack right into a authorities pc to steal data – an obvious reference to Assange’s indictment wherein he’s accused of asking Manning to supply extra supplies, which is frequent apply amongst journalists.
The Obama administration in 2013 determined to not indict Assange over WikiLeaks’ 2010 publication of categorized cables as a result of it could have needed to additionally indict journalists from main information retailers who printed the identical supplies, which has been described as ”The New York Instances downside.” 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 12 months.
The Justice Division beneath former President Trump, nevertheless, later moved to indict Assange beneath the Espionage Act, and the Biden administration has continued to pursue his prosecution.
Fox Information Digital reached out to the Justice Division about Tuesday’s listening to, however a spokesperson declined to remark.
Quite a few rallies had been held in cities all over the world wherein supporters referred to as for Assange’s freedom, together with in London, Berlin, Paris, Sydney and Washington, D.C.
In London, Stella Assange, who like her husband’s legal professionals described the prosecution as politically motivated, in contrast the case to that of Alexei Navalny, the Russian opposition activist who died in jail on Friday whereas serving a 30-year sentence.
”Julian is a political prisoner and his life is in danger,” she advised reporters exterior the court docket in entrance of a big crowd of Assange’s supporters. ”What occurred to Navalny can occur to Julian.”
Fox Information Digital was on the rally in Washington, the place supporters praised Assange for revealing the reality about U.S. conflict crimes.
BIPARTISAN CONGRESSIONAL RESOLUTION CALLS ON US OFFICIALS TO DROP CHARGES AGAINST ASSANGE
Julian Assange supporters maintain an indication demanding his freedom at a rally exterior the Justice Division in Washington, D.C. (Fox Information Digital/Landon Mion)
Medea Benjamin, co-founder of the anti-war group Code Pink, mentioned, ”Take into consideration the tons of of 1000’s of people that died due to U.S. lies, and but, zero accountability, zero, no discuss even of imprisoning [former President] George Bush or [former Secretary of State] Condoleezza Rice, and even Hillary Clinton, for her crimes as Secretary of State. Nothing, nothing in any respect.”
Benjamin continued: ”Julian Assange, the one who wished the world group to know concerning the conflict crimes that had been being dedicated. Julian Assange, who understood how highly effective reality will be. And but right here he’s, languishing in jail. Right here he’s, doubtlessly, very quickly to be extradited to america.”
”This can be a second when we’ve got to replicate on how unsuitable the world order is, when we’ve got to replicate on how unjust it’s that the reality tellers are those which are in jail, and the way a lot we’ve got to work for Julian Assange to by no means be extradited to america as a result of we all know he won’t ever get a good trial right here in america,” she added. ”And we all know he has finished nothing unsuitable. Quite the opposite, if something, you have to be awarded for having advised the reality … And hopefully, we will someday have fun the discharge of Julian Assange and be capable to, in individual, give him our thanks for having uncovered the conflict criminals and having advised the American folks precisely what it’s your authorities has been doing.”
Creator and journalist Esther Iverem mentioned her ”coronary heart is damaged in so some ways, as a journalist who believes in journalism, believes that journalism could make a distinction when folks hear the reality … I am simply right here to say free Julian Assange. He is a truth-teller.”
Filmmaker and journalist Eleanor Goldfield mentioned that Assange is being prosecuted as a result of ”he opened governments, and he would not cease.”
”Assange is one man, he’s one man whose destiny marks the destiny of numerous others, whose destiny is inextricably linked to all those that tear on the facade of empire, who will not sit down and shut up, even within the face of imprisonment,” she mentioned in entrance of the Justice Division. ”If Julian Assange is delivered to this nation and tried for espionage, the folks on this constructing, on this road, on this metropolis, on this empire, will formally have criminalized actual journalism and truth-telling.”
Singer, political activist, and group organizer Luci Murphy led activists in music.
”Drop the costs, we will not be moved!” Murphy sang. ”Free Assange, we will not be moved! Identical to a tree that is planted by the water, we will not be moved.”
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 meant to criminalize journalism.
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In 2022, the editors and publishers of U.S. and European retailers 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 costs in opposition to Assange.
An editor for The Guardian additionally printed an editorial on Sunday saying that the outlet opposes Assange’s U.S. extradition as a result of doing so could be a risk to each the WikiLeaks founder and journalism.
There have additionally been a number of efforts made by lawmakers within the U.S. and Australia within the final 12 months to demand Assange’s freedom, together with a vote final week wherein the Australian Parliament overwhelmingly supported calling on the U.S. and U.Ok. Governments to finish Assange’s prosecution and a decision launched final month within the U.S. Home calling for him to be launched.
Reuters contributed to this report.