Julian Assange played his last card to avoid extradition to the United States
The first of two days of final appeals hearings began on February 20 in London to determine whether WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange can appeal his extradition to the United States. This is the last legal recourse available to an Australian journalist, who can appeal to the European Court of Human Rights if the appeal is not in his favour. Assange, 52, is wanted by the United States, which wants to prosecute him over the massive leak of documents that led to espionage charges. The journalist has been lodged in Belmarsh prison in London since 2019. what is at stake?
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Julian Assange’s lawyers on Tuesday launched their final legal challenge in the United Kingdom to prevent the founder of the WikiLeaks portal from being sent to the United States to face espionage charges. British authorities had approved extradition in 2022.
Assange did not appear at the High Court in London on 20 February due to health problems. His wife, Stella Assange, warned last week that his health was “deteriorating, physically and mentally.” The information was confirmed by his lawyer Edward Fitzgerald and one of the judges in the case, who allowed Assange to leave Belmarsh prison, where he has been held for five years.
The hearing will continue for two days in front of two senior judges. If successful, your case will go to full appeal. If he loses, the only obstacle to his extradition is to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), where he already has an application filed and which can stop or postpone his extradition.
Assange’s defense team believes that if he is extradited he could be held in a high-security prison in the United States and face up to 175 years in prison if convicted.
Facing the risk of stiff punishment, Stella Assange fears her husband will commit suicide and her followers say if he is extradited “freedom of speech will be destroyed.”
Assange’s long legal battle
US authorities want to prosecute an Australian editor for revealing US military secrets about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan through his WikiLeaks portal, secrets that expose the first power’s excesses even against civilians. The data is summarized in thousands of confidential documents relating to diplomatic activities starting in 2010.
John Rees, founder of the Free Assange campaign, said, “The United States is attempting to convict Julian Assange under the Espionage Act of 1917.” “If they get their way, they will have managed to redefine journalism as espionage,” he said.
Assange was arrested by British police at the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where he had been hiding since 2012 to avoid capture by Swedish authorities, who had requested his surrender for alleged sexual abuse. Later these charges were withdrawn.
However, since his arrest in the Ecuadorian Embassy, Assange’s most difficult legal phase began. On April 11, 2019, the political asylum that Ecuador had initially granted Assange was revoked, and Assange was arrested.
In June 2019, the United States Department of Justice formally asked the United Kingdom to extradite him to its territory to face 18 charges of conspiracy and violating the North American country’s espionage laws.
Assange has since been held in Belmarsh maximum security prison awaiting an extradition hearing.
We have two great days ahead of us. We don’t know what to expect. They need to know that they can’t escape this. Julian needs his freedom and we all need the truth
These were the words of Assange’s wife who gathered with Australian supporters in front of the High Court in London.
What did the documents leaked by Assange reveal?
The scandal began in 2010, when Assange posted a classified video on WikiLeaks that appeared to depict a 2007 US invasion of Iraq that killed a dozen people, including two Reuters news agency employees.
Similarly, Assange published approximately 400,000 secret US files on the war in Iraq, which exposed the Pentagon’s methods on foreign soil and resulted in a crisis of credibility.
The US war in Afghanistan was also the subject of leaks. More than 90,000 classified US military documents were exposed.
These two leaks demonstrated the severity of the United States’ two most controversial and deadly wars abroad and the responsibility of the world’s leading military power in the killing of civilian populations.
For many, the Assange case is one of the largest security breaches in United States military history, but also a journalistic leak that has put the defense of independent media and its human rights at the forefront.
Assange played his last card.
With Reuters and local media
(TagstoTranslate)Europe(T)Julian Assange(T)United Kingdom(T)United States(T)Leaking(T)Military Intelligence(T)Iraq War(T)Afghanistan War(T)Extradition(T)WikiLeaks
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