Julian Assange in grave danger as he loses latest appeal
JVL Introduction
On June 6th, a British Court rejected Julian Assange’s appeal against extradition to the US. If his final appeal fails, he faces an almost certain guilty verdict and incarceration for 175 years in one of the worst imagineable prisons in the world. The campaign to free him continues. The silencing of an investigative journalist, who has exposed the powerful is highly dangerous. The toll on Julian and his family is profound; as humanitarians and advocates for free speech and for holding the powerful to account, we have no choice but to support the campaign to free him.
LL
This article was originally published by Guardian on Fri 9 Jun 2023. Read the original here.
Julian Assange ‘dangerously close’ to US extradition after losing latest legal appeal
Assange’s father, John Shipton, says his son’s grounds for a further UK hearing are ‘clear, firm and just’
Julian Assange is “dangerously close” to being extradited to the US after losing his latest legal appeal, his family and observers of his long-running legal challenge say.
His lawyers say they will appeal again to the same court, amid growing fears he could spend the rest of his life in prison for publishing thousands of classified military and diplomatic documents.
In a three-page judgment handed down on Tuesday, UK high court judge Justice Jonathan Swift rejected all eight grounds of Assange’s appeal against the US’s extradition order, signed by then UK home secretary Priti Patel in June last year.
But Assange’s wife, Stella Assange, said her husband would make a “renewed application for appeal to the high court” next week.
The matter would then be heard before two new judges in a public hearing, Stella Assange said.
“And we remain optimistic that we will prevail and that Julian will not be extradited to the United States where he faces charges that could result in him spending the rest of his life in a maximum security prison for publishing true information that revealed war crimes committed by the US government.”
Assange’s father, John Shipton, said his son’s grounds for a further hearing were “clear, firm and just”.
“Julian’s family watch on, horrified, and all fair-minded people the world over watch with profound disquiet and alarm,” he said.
Assange’s appeal argued that Patel, as home secretary, erred in her decision to approve the extradition order because the request violated the US-UK extradition treaty which states “extradition shall not be granted if the offence for which extradition is requested is a political offence”. His legal team has consistently maintained that the US desire to try Assange is politically motivated.
The appeal also argued Assange was being prosecuted for protected speech, and that the extradition request itself was an abuse of process.
Assange’s legal team has also said the US government has consistently misrepresented the core facts of the case to the British courts.
Swift’s rejection of the appeal grounds leaves only one final step in the UK courts: the defence has five working days to submit an appeal of 20 pages to a panel of two judges, who will convene a public hearing.
There are no further appeal avenues at the domestic level. Assange could still fight the extradition at the European court of human rights, which last December confirmed that an application from Assange had been received.
Assange’s brother, Gabriel Shipton, told the Guardian the high court rejection of his appeal was a serious development, “that leaves him dangerously close now to extradition”.
Shipton said the moments of setback were “the toughest” for his brother.
“These times are always very hard for Julian in the prison. He’s obviously focused on this next appeal … but he’s not doing well. This saga’s been going on 13 years and it is taking its toll on his body and on his mind.
Julian Assange. Image: Amnesty International
“But he still has a fighting spirit, we’re just hoping he makes it through this.”
Shipton said the Australian government’s public statements it was advocating for Assange’s release were insufficient.
“We’ve been hearing this ‘enough is enough’ for over a year, it rings hollow now, these strange platitudes from the government about ‘making representations’. What has that achieved? Nothing has changed, and the Australian government can certainly be doing more.”
Rebecca Vincent, director of campaigns with Reporters Sans Frontieres said RSF was deeply concerned by the high court judgment
“It is absurd that a single judge can issue a three-page decision that could land Julian Assange in prison for the rest of his life and permanently impact the climate for journalism around the world.
“The historical weight of what happens next cannot be overstated; it is time to put a stop to this relentless targeting of Assange and act instead to protect journalism and press freedom. Our call on President Biden is now more urgent than ever: drop these charges, close the case against Assange, and allow for his release without further delay.”
Assange faces 18 charges over WikiLeaks’ publication of classified documents, largely the result of a leak by the former US army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning. Manning was sentenced to 35 years in prison but released after President Barack Obama commuted her sentence in 2017.
If convicted, Assange faces a combined total sentence of up to 175 years in prison.
He has been held, in deteriorating health, in Belmarsh prison for more than four years, as he has contested the US extradition order.
from poster for Ithaka, a film about Julian Assange and the struggle for freedom
It’s time the British public realised that the Judiciary and the Executive are not independent of each other and are part of the same class system born & bred. The public school elites have dominated ‘the establishment for centuries as the myth of equality and social mobility remains an illusion ‘peddled’ to provide ‘hope’ of a better tomorrow.
‘The Law’, is designed to maintain the status quo. Power will always remain in the hands of the elite classes and ‘enforced’ by a system of coercion and empty promises. Politicians once promised us hope, now all we have are threats and austerity. Julian Assange is guilty of the crime of ‘journalism’ and will be made an example of to show what happens if and when you seriously challenge ‘the establishment’ as we move into an era where ‘Freedom of Speech’ is just another item on GB News, another illusion where truth and reality part company.
I would imagine that the authorities will press for a plea bargain in order to avoid a trial. That is what happened when James Earl Ray was extradited to the USA and it thus enabled him to be framed for the assassination of Martin Luther King.
Ray went through a number of attorneys. One of these was Percy Foreman, a friend and ally of President Johnson. He was able to trick and coerce Ray into a plea bargain.
Later, Ray appealed to Judge Preston Battle for a trial but he was unable to give a ruling because he very conveniently died of a heart attack. The new judge ruled against a trial.
Several years later, Judge Joe Brown was removed as appeal court judge.
He can be seen on YouTube stating that Ray’s rifle was not the murder weapon and that Ray was not the killer. It is worth bearing in mind that Brown is an enthusiastic gun owner and apparently very knowledgeable on the subject of rifles.
https://labourheartlands.com/
Exclusive: Ken Loach calls out Sir Keir Starmer, what were his dealings in the Julian Assange case.
Paul Knaggs –
July 26, 2021
(Excerpt follows)
The emails between the Swedish Prosecuting Authority (SPA) and the CPS show that the latter was closely involved in the Assange case at every stage.
In one such email, dated 25 January 2011, a CPS lawyer advised the SPA not to send someone to the UK: “My earlier advice remains, that in my view it would not be prudent for the Swedish authorities to try to interview the defendant [Assange] in the UK.“
In August 2012, in response to an article saying Sweden could withdraw the warrant against Assange, a CPS staffer (name redacted) warned [pdf, p1] Sweden’s Director of Public Prosecutions Marianne Ny: “Don’t you dare get cold feet!!!“
On 14 August 2021 Ken Loach announced he had been expelled from the LP. This decision to expel Ken Loach of course can’t be said to have been influenced by the above article quoting him in the Labour Heartlands article.
But it more than suggests that had it not been for Keir Starmer’s office the Assange case could have been wrapped up a decade ago.
Every time I’ve read an article on Julian Assange, I feel angry and emotional, he never hurt anyone, tortured or killed anyone, his only crime was to tell the World of the war crimes of US soldiers. That’s a sin worthy of a sentence that is longer than life itself according to the US, which is enough to make anyone who cares about justice angry but my anger is caused by the UK Government and Starmer’s Opposition Party, they are bowing to the US Government and clearly have not an ounce of compassion or desire to see justice done, he’s been a prisoner already for many years and he’s innocent of any crime. The government should step in and tell the US, he’s suffered enough and Starmer should be calling for his release but everyone knows he would never, ever do that.