Wednesday, August 11, 2021


US government wins first appeal battle in fight to extradite Julian Assange


By Latika Bourke
August 12, 2021 — 

London: The US government has won the right to appeal key evidence that had successfully claimed Julian Assange should not be extradited to the US because he was a “very high” suicide risk.

The written evidence was given by Professor Michael Kopelman, who appeared for Assange during an extradition hearing last year which the WikiLeaks founder won.


A sketch of Julian Assange, left, as he appeared via video link at the High Court in London.
CREDIT:ELIZABETH COOK/PA

A judge ruled in January that Assange should not be extradited to the US to face criminal charges including breaking a spying law, accepting testimony that his mental health combined with Asperger’s Syndrome made him a suicide risk.

The US had already been given permission to appeal the January ruling on three grounds, but on Wednesday asked that the scope of it be expanded to include a reassessment of Kopelman’s expert evidence used to evaluate Assange’s risk of suicide.

In an appeal hearing before the High Court on Wednesday, the US government singled out the fact that Kopelman, despite giving his opinion on the risk of Assange dying by suicide, had omitted the fact that Assange had secretly fathered two children with his fiancee Stella Moris, with whom he formed a relationship while holed up in the Ecuadorian embassy.

“It is in my view arguable that Professor Kopelman did not act in accordance with his declaration and that the DJ [District Judge] erred in not taking that into account,” Lord Justice Timothy Holroyde, the judge in Wednesday’s ruling, said.

He said more “detailed and critical consideration” should have been given to the serving of a report which contained “misleading information” and “significant omissions”.

“To my mind, this goes more to the weight given to the evidence than to its admissibility,” he said.


Julian Assange’s partner Stella Moris outside the High Court on Wednesday.
CREDIT:AP
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The US government is arguing that Assange is capable of resisting suicide and in the High Court repeated its offer for the Australian to serve out any sentence in his home country rather than the US.

The full appeal will be heard on October 27 and 28.

Edward Fitzgerald QC, representing Assange, sought to comfort the Australian, whom he spoke to from the courtroom via a video link, after the decision.

“It’s only a preliminary ruling, it’s not the end of the line at all, just saying it’s arguable and we’ve at least got a clear idea of the case we’ve got to meet for the full hearing,” Fitzgerald told Assange.

Supporters gathered outside as the High Court heard a US appeal in the extradition case of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.
CREDIT:GETTY IMAGES

The conversation was streamed to journalists reporting remotely and was supposed to have been private, but Fitzgerald repeatedly warned Assange that it was likely their discussion was being broadcast.

“I won’t say any more Julian or invite you to say too much because people might be listening in,” he said.

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But Assange said he could not comprehend the reasoning behind the decision. “I just don’t understand how ... an expert has a legal obligation to protect people from harm, my children in particular,” he said, an apparent reference to Kopelman’s decision to omit referring to Moris and their two children.

The 50-year-old had been expected to appear in person at the Royal Courts of Justice but instead appeared via a video link, seated on a sofa in a room at Belmarsh Prison where he has been imprisoned for almost two years.

He appeared dishevelled, his white hair straggly and grown out to the base of his neck. He wore a white shirt with the collar unbuttoned and a burgundy tie undone and hanging around his neck. His facemask covered only his mouth, leaving his nose exposed.

The US government is pursuing Assange for espionage, arguing he conspired with Chelsea Manning, then an army intelligence officer, to hack into government systems to steal three-quarters of a million secret and classified cables which his organisation WikiLeaks dumped, unredacted, online.

Assange says he is a whistleblower and journalist, but this was rejected by the judge overseeing his extradition hearing who said his actions went beyond that of a whistleblower.

US lawyers appeal UK decision to block Julian Assange extradition

By AP • Updated: 11/08/2021 -
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Supporters of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange hold up a banner as they protest, during the first hearing in the Julian Assange extradition appeal, at the High Court in London - Copyright Matt Dunham /AP

Lawyers acting on behalf of the U.S. government on Wednesday challenged a British judge’s decision to block the extradition of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to face espionage charges in the United States, arguing that assessments of Assange’s mental health should be reviewed.

The British judge, Vanessa Baraitser, ruled in January that Assange was likely to kill himself if held under harsh U.S. prison conditions. The U.S. government is appealing.

Clair Dobbin, a lawyer who represented U.S. authorities during a High Court preliminary hearing on Wednesday, argued that Assange does not meet the threshold of being “so ill” that he cannot resist harming himself.

She said a decision not to prosecute or extradite an individual would require “a mental illness of a type that the ability to resist suicide has been lost.” Assange's condition did not come close to being of that nature, and he has not made serious attempts on his life before, she argued.

She added that Assange “orchestrated one of the largest thefts of data in history."

On Wednesday, the 50-year-old Australian, wearing a dark face mask, listened in by video link from London’s high-security Belmarsh prison, where he has been held since 2019.

Outside the court, Assange’s partner, Stella Moris, described him as an “innocent man accused of practising journalism.”


“For every day that this colossal injustice is allowed to continue, Julian’s situation grows increasingly desperate,” Moris, who has two young children with Assange, told his supporters and reporters.

“Julian has been denied the love and affection of his family for so long. Julian and the kids will never get this time back. This shouldn’t be happening," she added.

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A group of protesters, including Jeremy Corbyn, the former leader of Britain's opposition Labour Party, held placards reading “Journalism is not a crime” and shouted “Free Julian Assange!” to the beat of a drum as police looked on.

U.S. prosecutors have indicted Assange on 17 espionage charges and one charge of computer misuse over WikiLeaks’ publication of thousands of leaked military and diplomatic documents a decade ago. The charges carry a maximum sentence of 175 years in prison.

In January, Baraitser, the district judge, accepted evidence from expert witnesses that Assange had a depressive disorder and an autism spectrum disorder. She agreed that U.S. prison conditions would be oppressive, saying there was a “real risk” he would be sent to the Administrative Maximum Facility in Florence, Colorado, the highest security prison in the U.S.

But she rejected defence arguments that Assange faces a politically motivated American prosecution that would override free-speech protections. She said the U.S. judicial system would give him a fair trial.

Supporters and lawyers for Assange argue that he was acting as a journalist and is entitled to First Amendment protections of freedom of speech for publishing documents that exposed U.S. military wrongdoing in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Lawyers for the U.S. government, however, have said the case is largely based on "his unlawful involvement” in the theft of the diplomatic cables and military files by U.S. Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning.

Assange was arrested in London in 2010 at the request of Sweden, which wanted to question him about allegations of rape and sexual assault made by two women. In 2012, Assange jumped bail and sought refuge inside the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, where he remained holed up for the next seven years.

Ecuador withdrew the asylum it had granted him in 2019 and he was then immediately arrested for breaching bail. Sweden dropped the sex crimes investigations in November 2019 because so much time had elapsed.

Dobbin, presenting the U.S. government, said Wednesday that the need to scrutinize January's ruling was “substantially increased” given the “extraordinary lengths” Assange had already gone to in order to avoid extradition.

“He was willing to break the law and no cost was too great, both in terms of the cost of policing his being in the embassy and of course the cost to himself,” she said.

A decision was not expected Wednesday.

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