London – Journalists and press freedom organizations, including the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), Reporters Without Borders, PEN International and Article 19, have issued a letter urging the British government to reject the extradition of Julian Assange to the United States.
After all procedural steps have been completed, the English court WikiLeaks returns founder’s case to UK Home Office on 20 AprilHeaded by Interior Minister Priti Patel.
Assange has been wanted by US justice since 2010 for posting military secrets on the WikiLeaks website, responding to prosecutions in the country that could lead to 175 years in prison. The US was able to reverse the January 2021 decision banning extradition due to Assange’s emotional state.
‘Serious concern’ over Assange’s extradition
In the letter published by the IFJ, 19 organizations defending freedom of press and expression accuse the so-called British secretary Priti Patel of banning Assange’s extradition.
The Wikileaks founder is being held in London’s maximum security Belmarsh prison after being removed from the Ecuadorian embassy in the British capital three years ago.
In the document, the signatories state:Serious concern over the possibility of Assange’s extradition to the United States”.
“Despite US government assurances that it would seriously increase the risk of suicide, it is very likely that he will be detained there in isolation or solitary confinement.”
“We encourage [Priti Patel] To act on behalf of freedom of the press and journalism, to refuse extradition, and to immediately release Assange from detention, where he has been detained for three years, despite the grave risks to his mental and physical health.”
According to institutions, Assange would not be able to adequately defend himself in the US courts.
His lawsuit, he continues, would set a “dangerous precedent” that could apply to “any media outlet that publishes stories based on leaked information, or indeed any journalist, editor, or source anywhere in the world.”
Read the full document here connection.
Other demonstrations and petitions against Assange’s extradition
With the decision on Julian Assange’s extradition in the hands of Home Secretary Priti Patel, the next few weeks will be one of high pressures on the British government – a deadline for anything to be defined.
Protesters gathered outside the courthouse on the day of the hearing, when the case was returned to the British government.
In front of Westminster’Magistrate’s Court, minutes ago. I’m inside the building now. My colleagues and I await the arrival of the judge. It will be announced that the return process can take place. But we’ll all have to keep fighting #Assangefreedom. For our freedom. pic.twitter.com/bLgjvkVI6S
— Sara Chessa (@sarachessa1) 20 April 2022
The mobilization of organizations advocating freedom of press and expression, such as Amnesty International, started right after the session.
Amnesty’s statement says the UK is violating international human rights law if it extradites Assange to the US or sends him to the US by any other means.
Amnesty International: “Britain would have violated its obligations under international human rights law had Julian Assange been extradited or otherwise transferred to the United States” @amnesty #FreeAssangeNOW pic.twitter.com/pqrC8rdxbP
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) 20 April 2022
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has launched a new petition asking the Secretary of the Interior to refuse Assange’s extradition to the United States.
“Through this petition, we seek to unite those who care about journalism and freedom of the press to hold the UK government to account.”
“The Home Secretary must now act to protect journalism and uphold the UK’s commitment to media freedom by rejecting the extradition order and releasing Assange,” said Rebecca Vincent, RSF Director of Operations and Campaigns.
The petition ended with more than 90,000 signatures.
On Saturday, 23rd, Stella Assange, wife of the founder of WikiLeaks, attended a demonstration in Brussels to support her husband.
In an interview with AFP, he asked the British government not to sign Assange’s extradition order to the United States, considering that his future now rests at the mercy of a “political decision” that “will have repercussions for the whole of Europe”.
“This is a European problem where the heart of democratic values is at stake. The decision will have repercussions for the whole world, for journalists across Europe.”
Speaking after the extradition decision this week, Julian Assange’s wife said: “The UK has no obligation to extradite Julian Assange to the US, in fact, it has to stop this extradition in accordance with its international obligations.” @stellamoris1 #FreeAssangeNOW pic.twitter.com/wTVc4itNJ1
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) 23 April 2022
Stella and Julian Asange married on March 23 in London, where the Wikileaks founder was imprisoned. There, activists called for his release.
The bride came to prison in a satin dress created by British designer Vivienne Westwood and with her two children from Assange. The ceremony was attended by two children, Assange’s father and brother, and the bride’s sister and mother.
The couple met in 2011 while defecting at the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where he spent nearly seven years.
Stella Moris, a lawyer, had been hired to defend the journalist who was trying to avoid extradition to Sweden, where she was responding to a sexual assault case that was closed without trial.
He remained in the building, however, to protect himself against extradition to the United States, and only left after the diplomatic mission authorized British police to arrest him in 2019.
They began their love affair in 2015 and have two children aged four and two respectively, Gabriel and Max seeing their father only on visits to maximum security prison where he waits for his legal saga to conclude.
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Assange’s prison wedding party threw outside and social media mobilization
Remember the Julian Assange case
Australian citizen Julian Assange has been arrested in London after spending more than six years in the Ecuadorian embassy as a way to avoid extradition to Sweden, where he faces a sexual assault case, and then to the United States for crimes against National security. .
The founder of WikiLeaks is being sued by the United States for conspiracy to obtain and disseminate national defense information after hundreds of thousands of leaked documents related to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq were posted on the site.
He faces up to 175 years in prison on 18 charges. In January 2021, District Judge Vanessa Baraister accepted Assange’s defense thesis and blocked his extradition on the grounds that he risked suicide if he went to a maximum security prison in the United States.
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British court decides not to extradite Julian Assange
In February, a British court granted the country only three procedural appeals that did not include a medical report indicating a suicide risk, and they had little chance of changing the verdict, analysts said.
US State Department attorneys presented a series of guarantees to the court to reduce the risk of alleged suicide, including not subjecting them to a special segregation regime in a maximum security prison.
Edward Fitzgerald, one of Assange’s attorneys, said at the time that “qualified and contingent guarantees” were presented “too late to be properly tested” and “without prejudice to the main conclusions of the district judge who enforced the law in a strict and strict manner”. completely appropriately”.
At another hearing in October, the attorney added that it was “clear” that Judge Vanessa Baraister had made a “carefully considered and fully reasoned decision” in January, and that she had “correctly applied the pressure test in mental illness cases”.
He told the court: “It is perfectly reasonable to consider the extradition of a mentally ill person to be coercive because extradition could result in his death,” he added, adding that the court should be able to use its authority “to protect people from being extradited to a country.” foreign state over which we have no control over what is done to them.”
Another defense in Julian Assange’s defense at the October session was: Disclosures made by Yahoo news site in September It’s about the US plans to kidnap and kill the founder of WikiLeaks while he was taking refuge in the Ecuadorian Embassy in 2007.
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Assange’s defense wants to avoid extradition, citing US plans to kidnap and kill him
At the time, Assange was entering his fifth year in asylum at the Ecuadorian embassy in London, and Trump administration officials were discussing the legality and feasibility of an operation to remove the activist from the site, according to the investigation, according to Yahoo.
Senior CIA and Trump administration officials reportedly requested “sketches” of how to assassinate him. Discussions about Assange’s kidnapping and possible assassination are taking place “at the highest levels” of the Trump administration, a former counterintelligence official told Yahoo.
Assange’s defense sought to convince the Supreme Court that he could not be extradited to a country that tried to kill him.
But it was not successful. The US State Department managed to overturn the decision in December 2021 and paved the way for extradition.
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source: Noticias
