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WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s hearing on the British High Court in London for his attainable last enchantment difficult his extradition to the U.S. concluded on Wednesday. The court docket just isn’t anticipated to decide on the Australian writer’s destiny till a minimum of subsequent month.
The two-day enchantment hearing 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 categorised 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, stated in a speech outdoors the court docket.
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, stated Wednesday they might take time to come to a verdict, and a ruling on Assange’s destiny just isn’t anticipated till March on the earliest.
While the hearing might be Assange’s last enchantment making an attempt to block his extradition to the U.S., a full enchantment hearing may come in the longer term if he wins in court docket this week. If he loses this enchantment, Assange’s solely remaining choice could be on the European Court of Human Rights, however his supporters concern he might 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 get hold of and publish categorised U.S. authorities paperwork. She claims Assange inspired and helped U.S. Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning steal diplomatic cables and army recordsdata that WikiLeaks revealed, and that doing so jeopardized lives.
But there isn’t any proof that WikiLeaks put anybody in hazard by publishing the paperwork. It can be a standard apply amongst journalists to ask a supply to present extra materials.
Dobbin claimed that Assange broken U.S. safety and intelligence providers and “created a grave and imminent risk” by publishing a whole bunch of hundreds of paperwork. She stated these dangers may hurt and lead to the arbitrary detention of harmless individuals, together with many who lived in warfare zones or beneath repressive regimes.
She stated 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 stated. “The allegations are that he sought to encourage theft and hacking that would benefit WikiLeaks.”
Lawyers for Assange argued throughout day one of many hearing 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’s “a real risk he may suffer a flagrant denial of justice.”
Julian Assange’s legal professionals are on their last U.Ok. authorized problem to cease the WikiLeaks founder from being despatched to the U.S. to face spying prices. (AP)
Dobbin stated the First Amendment doesn’t grant immunity to journalists who break the regulation and that media retailers that went by way of the method of redacting the paperwork earlier than publishing them will not be being prosecuted.
Journalists situated outdoors of England and Wales, together with from Fox News Digital, have been denied entry to observe the hearing remotely. Journalists who have been permitted entry, both remotely or in individual, had bother at occasions hearing legal professionals throughout Wednesday’s arguments.
Should 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 up to 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 Without Borders stated in a press release 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 court docket on Tuesday and Wednesday due to well being points. His household has raised considerations about his bodily and psychological well being, with Stella Assange telling reporters that her husband’s life is in danger day by 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. Special Rapporteur on Torture, Alice Jill Edwards, known as on the U.Ok. authorities to halt the attainable extradition of Assange over considerations that he could be vulnerable to remedy amounting to torture or different types of ill-treatment or punishment.
BIPARTISAN CONGRESSIONAL RESOLUTION CALLS ON US OFFICIALS TO DROP CHARGES AGAINST ASSANGE
Last month, a bunch of Australian lawmakers wrote a letter to U.Ok. Home 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 impartial evaluation of Assange’s threat of persecution.
Assange is dealing with 17 prices for allegedly receiving, possessing and speaking categorised data to the general public beneath the Espionage Act, and one cost alleging a conspiracy to commit laptop intrusion.
The prices have been introduced by the Trump administration’s Justice Department 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 displaying 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 circumstances. 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 might shield him from extradition to the U.S. The investigations into the sexual assault allegations have been finally dropped.
A protester holds a poster on the Royal Courts of Justice in London, Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2024. (AP)
A U.Ok. District Judge rejected the U.S. extradition request in 2021 on the grounds that Assange was seemingly to kill himself if he was held beneath harsh U.S. jail circumstances. Higher courts later overturned that call after receiving assurances from the U.S. about his remedy, and the British authorities signed an extradition order in June 2022.
One of Assange’s legal professionals, Mark Summers, stated Tuesday there was proof displaying that there had been a plan to kidnap or homicide Assange whereas he was in 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 stated.
The CIA beneath the Trump administration allegedly had plans to kill Assange over the publication of delicate company hacking instruments referred to as “Vault 7,” which have been leaked to WikiLeaks, Yahoo reported in 2021. The company stated 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 draw 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 to the Yahoo report.
While he was in the embassy, the CIA was uncovered for spying on Assange and his legal professionals. A decide just lately dominated {that a} lawsuit introduced towards 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 stated.
The Obama administration in 2013 determined not to indict Assange over WikiLeaks’ 2010 publication of categorised cables as a result of it might have had to additionally indict journalists from main information retailers 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.
But the Justice Department 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 in 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 stated his prosecution units a harmful precedent meant to criminalize journalism.
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 in the Cablegate leak – The Guardian, The New York Times, Le Monde, Der Spiegel and El País – wrote an open letter calling for the U.S. to drop the fees towards 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 could be a risk to each the WikiLeaks founder and journalism.
There have additionally been a number of efforts made by lawmakers in the U.S. and Australia in the final yr to demand Assange’s freedom, together with a vote final week in which 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 in the U.S. House calling for him to be launched.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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