At the end of the two-day hearing at the High Court in London, the WikiLeaks founder is still awaiting the verdict on whether the British judiciary will grant him a final appeal against his extradition to the United States
Activists campaigning for the Australian journalist's release have protested in several European cities against the possible extradition./ (Photo: EFE)
The lack of a final decision by the United Kingdom Supreme Court on the extradition of Julian Assange to the United States today fuels concerns about the future of press freedom on a global scale.
If judges hearing the appeal order the WikiLeaks founder to be transferred to the northern country, he could face around 175 years in prison under a centuries-old espionage law passed in 1917 and never before applied to a journalist.
On the 20th and 21st, Assange's lawyers, held in Belmarsh prison since April 2019, returned to court to prevent the extradition of the 52-year-old communicator, who was charged by Washington with 18 counts of espionage and computer burglary.
Judges Victoria Sharp and Adam Johnson will deliberate on the matter for an as yet unspecified period of time, after presenting the arguments of the defense of the Australian – who is currently absent due to illness – and the British prosecutor, representing the American justice system.
If the judges agree to the request, a new appeal process will begin. If not, they will activate extradition to the United States, although the lawyers have already announced the request for precautionary measures to stop the trial at the European Court of Human Rights.
During those two days, lawyers Edward Fitzgerald and Mark Summers argued that Assange's rendition would be a violation of the British-American extradition treaty because the crimes he was accused of were political in nature and violated his freedom of expression.
This would also mean that the defendant would face the death penalty, and they suggested that he would not receive a fair trial, especially because the jury would be made up of people connected to the White House.
In this sense, they pointed out that the US Attorney's Office plans to ask the journalist, due to his Australian citizenship, not to apply the same constitutional protections as citizens of this territory.
His legal team also recalled a 2000 ruling in which the US justice system pointed out that if a person reported a corruption case and the authorities brought him to court, it could be a case of political persecution.
For her part, Clair Dobbin, representative of Washington, called for the disallowance of the resource and the approval of the delivery, arguing that the allegations against the person classified as a “former hacker” are crimes based on evidence.
He also pointed out that the defendant is wanted for conspiring with former soldier Chelsea Manning to illegally obtain military intelligence information and then disseminate it, thereby endangering “numerous innocent informants in the United States.”
In 2010 and 2011, the WikiLeaks website published numerous previously secret files on US military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, materials that revealed dozens of irregularities, crimes and riots against the population.
One of them was the video of a US helicopter gunship firing on civilians in Baghdad, killing dozens of civilians, including two journalists from the Portal news agency.
At the heart of the CIA plot to assassinate Julian Assange #FreeAssange pic.twitter.com/sJ8uXmzRwG
—WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) February 22, 2024
(With information from agencies)
