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Julian Assange

UK High Court overrules earlier decision to block Wikileaks founder’s extradition to US

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The British High Court has overturned an earlier decision blocking the extradition of Julian Assange to the United States. The judges accepted assurances from the US about conditions in which he would be held. The case raises serious questions about press freedom. 

Assange is accused of publishing information revealing crimes committed by the US government in the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, Iraq, and Afghanistan, and details of CIA torture and rendition. He also helped reveal the extent of mass surveillance by US security agencies. 

The Wikileaks founder sought refuge in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London in June 2012, where he stayed before being forcibly removed in 2019. He is a controversial figure, thought to have collaborated with the Kremlin to interfere in US elections to assist the campaign of Donald Trump. Nevertheless, the issues of press freedom and a fair trial are thought by many to outweigh any reservations about Assange’s character. The European Parliament has supported the campaign against Assange’s extradition to the US. 

Leading civil liberties groups, including Amnesty International, Reporters Without Borders, ACLU, and Human Rights Watch have called the charges against Julian Assange a “threat to press freedom around the globe”. 

Journalist unions, including the National Union of Journalists and the International Federation of Journalists, have said that “media freedom is suffering lasting damage by the continued prosecution of Julian Assange”. 

Assange could face a 175-year prison sentence. Stella Moris, Julian Assange’s fiancee, said: “We will appeal this decision at the earliest possible moment.” Moris described the High Court’s ruling as “dangerous and misguided” and a “grave miscarriage of justice”. “How can it be fair, how can it be right, how can it be possible, to extradite Julian to the very country which plotted to kill him?” she said.

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On 26 September, CIA plans to assassinate Julian Assange were uncovered, asked about the report Mike Pompeo, former Secretary of State and former CIA Director said in an interview: “When bad guys steal those secrets we have a responsibility to go after them, to prevent [that] from happening. We absolutely have a responsibility to respond. We desperately wanted to hold accountable those individuals that had violated US law, that had violated requirements to protect information and had tried to steal it. There is a deep legal framework to do that and we took actions consistent with US law to try to achieve that.” 

Amnesty International says the so-called assurances upon which the US government relies “leave Mr. Assange at risk of ill-treatment”, are “inherently unreliable” and “should be rejected”, adding that they are “discredited by their admission that they reserved the right to reverse those guarantees”.

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