London – Despite all the pressure, the British government signed the decision this morning to extradite Julian Assange to the US, on the grounds that the British courts did not understand that extradition would be unfair or incompatible with human rights.
The decision was announced by the National Secretariat of the Interior under the command of Priti Patel. The Wikileaks founder’s defense now has 14 days to appeal the decision.
The demonstrators, who gathered in the square in front of the London Parliament since the early hours of the morning, reacted to the expected extradition decision.
Assange is still in jail
Australian citizen Julian Assange will remain in maximum security Belmarsh prison in London since 2019, where he awaits the processing of his US extradition request.
The country wants to prosecute former army intelligence officer Chelsea Manning for leaking documents obtained that point to US forces’ irregularities in Iraq and Afghanistan. The documents were published on the WikiLeaks website and reproduced by international media.
Assange’s trial is seen as a press freedom milestone, as his conviction paves the way for criminal liability for journalists, media outlets or whistleblowers who publicly disclose confidential information for misconduct or uncovering crimes.
WikiLeaks has declared this a black day for press freedom and British democracy.
Organizations such as Reporters Without Borders immediately expressed their anger and intent to continue fighting for Julian Assange’s release and the dismissal of the cases against him.
Not surprising, but totally embarrassing decision. Another failure by Britain to protect journalism and freedom of the press brought Julian Assange one step closer to extradition. also @RSF_inter We are committed to campaigning for #FreeAssange as long as! https://t.co/hH2540amOf
— Rebecca Vincent (@rebecca_vincent) 17 June 2022
The statement from the Ministry of Interior is as follows:
“After being addressed by both the Magistrates’ Court and the Supreme Court on 17 June, Mr. Julian Assange was ordered to go to the USA. Mr. Assange normally reserves the right of 14 days of appeal.
“In this case, the UK courts did not understand that extraditing Mr. would be oppressive, unfair or abusive of the process. Assange.
They also did not understand that extradition would be incompatible with human rights, including the right to a fair trial and freedom of expression, and that he would be treated appropriately, including for his health, while in the United States.”
The Wikileaks founder’s safety was the main argument for his wife, Stella, a lawyer who led the defense team.
She points out that her husband could not be taken to a country where he tried to kill her, citing a US plot allegedly revealed by the Yahoo news site in 2021.
Watch: CIA plot to kill Julian Assange and fight to free him | @DoubleDownNews #FreeAssangeNOW pic.twitter.com/8LTjMwQtfx
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) 8 June 2022
Understand Assange’s extradition lawsuit
Julian Assange was arrested in London in 2019 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 WikiLeaks founder is responding to 18 lawsuits filed by the US government alleging a 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.
In January 2021, British District Judge Vanessa Baraister accepted Assange’s defense thesis and blocked his extradition on the grounds that he was at risk of committing suicide if he went to a maximum security prison in the United States.
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.
Attorneys from the US State Department presented the court with a series of guarantees aimed at reducing the risk of alleged suicide; this includes not being subject to a special segregation regime in a maximum security prison.
Assange’s defense sought to convince the Supreme Court that he could not be extradited to a country that tried to kill him, due to revelations made by the Yahoo news site in September. It’s about the US plans to kidnap and kill the Wikileaks founder in 2007.
Read more
Assange’s defense wants to avoid extradition, citing US plans to kidnap and 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.
Next steps in Assange’s extradition saga
Before the extradition decision was announced, Assange’s defense questioned issues such as political motivation, legal neglect and abuse of democratic rights, suggesting that the decision would be appealed. This would have kept the activist in Belmarsh Prison longer.
Another possibility is to file an application with the European Court of Human Rights, which lawyers expect at a press conference in October. But as the UK is no longer part of the European Union, there is no guarantee that it will consider it.
Despite this, the European Union chose Assange’s side. In May, the Council of Europe’s Human Rights Commission made a request to the UK not to extradite the Wikileaks founder.
source: Noticias
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