London – The UK is “brainless”, coexisting with the summer holidays of a prime minister’s last days in office, and in this context the epic of Julian Assange’s extradition unfolds.
In the office, vans pick up his stuff from 10 Downing Street as Boris Johnson traveled to celebrate his honeymoon and is now on vacation, a way of saying he may not live there again until the new head of government takes office.
As the days pass in the so-called “zombie government,” the case that many see as a turning point in the history of press freedom is pending: Julian Assange continues to be imprisoned in Belmarsh Prison with extradition authorization to the United States. apparently paralyzed.
England and Assange’s extradition
Home Secretary Priti Patel, who has now made the decision, has remained in office since Boris Johnson’s resignation during the transitional period and supports possible new prime minister Liz Truss.
Well ahead of Rishi Sunak in the polls, Truss is an early ally of Boris Johnson, who is expected to continue to influence the new government.
He has a profile that is not inclined to pardon an alleged war crime or engage in hostilities with a powerful ally such as the United States, contrary to court orders allowing the extradition of Julian, who is now National Secretary of State. Assange
British media are already speculating about powerful figures in the Truss government. The Home Office would go to Suella Braverman, a parliamentarian who nominated herself for the top post but did not get enough votes and continues to support the possible new prime minister.
The Cambridge law graduate, the current UK Attorney General, aligns with Brexit advocates (who tend to be more nationalistic) and supports tough policies such as the controversial transfer of refugees to an immigration center in Rwanda.
This means that the new prime minister or his secretary has little chance of changing their minds on extradition. And the current person has already said that he will abide by the court order allowing the Wikileaks founder to be sent to the US.
Signs left before or after the country’s change of command suggest that the British government can’t expect much.
Without a twist in the case, the new (or new) prime minister can be returned before he takes office, to protect him from wear and tear.
Or if he later wishes to use the act to symbolize firmness and closeness to the United States. He wasn’t expected to debut in office fighting a military and economic ally.
Assange’s defense has even signaled that he may appeal to a European human rights court to overturn the extradition court order, but so far he has not.
18 processes and 175 jail terms
For leaking the secrets of the Iran and Iraq wars, Assange is facing 18 charges that could be worth 175 years in a maximum security prison in the US.
The lawsuits filed by the State Department were initiated under the administration of Barack Obama. They passed Trump and are now under Joe Biden.
When the Democrat took office, supporters of Assange and his wife, Stella, expressed hope that the new president could drop the charges, but that did not happen.
As in 2010, then-US Vice President Biden said that Assange was a “high-tech terrorist” who put lives at risk and made life difficult for the country.
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This is the central point of the Assange case, and it is going from being an individual case to becoming a collective case.
His probable extradition will have an impact on journalism and democracy.
The founder of Wikileaks disagrees. There are those who criticize him, there are those who do not see him as a journalist.
This is the case of CPJ (Committee to Protect Journalists), who said in a manifesto a few years ago that Wikileaks is not a regular publication tool and therefore did not consider it that way.
But the same CPJ understands that leaking important secrets to the public, as well as press, expression, and human rights organizations, threatens lawsuits against them.
If Julian Assange is found guilty as a journalist or source, he will serve as a model for prosecutions against other journalists, media companies or whistleblowers, which could lead to media self-censorship and fear for those who might expose stories of interest to the public. .
Investigative journalism has become more sophisticated and shines a light on corruption and crime scandals through global collaborative networks with access to documents that can confirm accusations.
Risking that with Assange’s extradition and his case in the US is a step backwards.
That’s why Assange and supporters of free journalism are trying everything to prevent extradition.
The latest action was a case in which two lawyers and two journalists claimed the CIA was spying on them while they were visiting the Wikileaks founder at the Ecuadorian embassy in London.
It may be nothing but the weapons of a battle to prevent the extradition of Julian Assange, which could have significant repercussions for the future of journalism. And this deserves to be followed.
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source: Noticias
