Opinion: It's well past time to free Julian Assange
A London court is set to rule on whether to overturn a decision not to extradite the WikiLeaks founder to the US. Rebecca Vincent from RSF argues if the UK and the US care about media freedom, Assange needs to be freed.
Julian Assange is still being held in London's high-security Belmarsh prison
Wednesday marks perhaps the most important momentyet in the case against WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange. From October 27-28, the High Court in London will consider the US government's appeal against the January decision opposing Assange's extradition to the US, where he would face trial on 18 charges that could land him in a supermax prison for the rest of his life — all for publishing information in the public interest.
The US government will be allowedto appeal on five specific grounds, following the High Court's decision to widen the scope of the appeal in a preliminary hearing on August 11, which now includes the US government's attempts to discredit a key witness who testified on the state of Assange's mental health, as well as other narrow, more technical grounds.
My organization, Reporters Without Borders (RSF), welcomed the decision opposing extradition, but criticized the substance of the ruling, which was based only on mental health grounds. We share the serious concerns about Assange's mental health, and for this reason have stated that his extradition to the US is a possible matter of life or death.
However, the court failed to take a strong position in favor of journalism and press freedom, which we fear leaves the door open to future similar prosecutions against publishers, journalists and sources.
Rebecca Vincent is director of international campaigns at RSF
Targeted for his contribution to journalism
We fully believe that Assange has been targeted for his contributions to journalism, as WikiLeaks' publication of thousands of leaked classified documents - the basis of the US charges - informed extensive public interest reporting by media around the world, exposing war crimes and human rights violations.
We continue to call for the charges against Assange to be dropped, and for him to be immediately released and certainly not extradited to the US. Assange's extradition and prosecution would have severe and long-lasting implications for journalism and press freedom around the world; the impact simply cannot be understated.
RSF is the only nongovernmental organization (NGO) that has monitored the entire extradition proceedings to date, but it has not been easy, due to severe restrictions on observation imposed by the court.
We were hoping to once again be present in court to monitor the historic extradition appeal hearing and analyze and report on proceedings. However, shortly before publication - the morning of the hearing - we were still fighting for court access.
This, unfortunately, is par for the course in a case in which, as I keep repeating, nothing is normal.
During the first-instance proceedings - held for a week in February 2020 and a full four weeks in September 2020, with the decision given in a January 4 hearing - the district judge refused to recognize professional NGO observers as having any role different to the public.
Assange is wanted in the US on espionage charges and for leaking classified documents
It left us having to fight for very few spaces in the public gallery, which involved queuing for several hours each morning to even get into court, with a range of other ludicrous issues further impacting our ability to monitor — ranging from additional seats being held back for mysterious VIPs who never materialized, to a broken buzzing lighting fixture making it difficult to even hear proceedings.
Barriers to observation in UK courts
Even with COVID restrictions in place, I have been allowed into court in Malta to monitor proceedings connected to the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia, and in Turkey to monitor the murder trial of Saudi columnist Jamal Khashoggi, without any access issues.
It is only in the UK that I have faced such extensive and constantly evolving barriers to observation — an experience shared by my RSF colleagues from other country offices who have also been involved in our monitoring efforts.
These access issues, along with the UK's continued detention of Assange in the high-security Belmarsh prison in London for no reason other than the fact that the US is pursuing its appeal, are only serving to tarnish the UK's international reputation.
If the UK government means what it says in its stated commitment to championing media freedom globally, it must lead by example, which it is failing spectacularly to do in this case.
US, UK should champion press freedom
Continuing to pursue the legal case against Assange also serves as a thorn in the side of the US government at a time when the Biden administration is actively seeking to reclaim a role for the US as an international leader on human rights and freedom of expression.
Protesters believe the UK and the US are compromising their position as role models for press freedom
RSF recently joined a coalition of 25 press freedom, civil liberties and international human rights organizations in calling again on the US Department of Justice to drop the charges and close the case once and for all.
It is our hope that this week's proceedings will serve as the end of the decadelong persecution of Julian Assange, and prevent further harm to his well-being, but also to journalism and press freedom globally.
For as long as this continues, a clear and damaging signal is being sent to those who wish to silence critical reporting around the world, that the very states who are looked to as standard-setters are also capable of such acts themselves. It's well past time to put a stop to this travesty.
Rebecca Vincent is director of international campaigns for Reporters Without Borders, known internationally by its French name, Reporters sans Frontieres (RSF).
Issued on: 27/10/2021 -
The US government will on Wednesday appeal against a British judge's decision to block the extradition of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to face trial for publishing military secrets. At a two-day hearing, Washington will ask the High Court to overturn District Judge Vanessa Baraitser's January ruling that Assange is a serious suicide threat if extradited across the Atlantic. FRANCE 24's Bénédicte Paviot reports from London.
Issued on: 27/10/2021 -
Video by: Camille NEDELEC
Lawyers for the United States will launch a fresh attempt on Wednesday to have Julian Assange extradited from Britain, arguing that concerns around the WikiLeaks founder's mental health should not prevent him from facing US justice. The 50-year-old Australian is wanted in the United States on 18 criminal charges, including breaking a spying law, after his group published thousands of secret classified files and diplomatic cables in 2010.
Julian Assange: US pursues extradition at UK High Court
Washington has appealed a ruling that kept WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange from being sent to the US, where he faces espionage charges and potentially a lifetime in prison.
Supporters of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange say his charges are politically motivated
The US government on Wednesday launched an appeal against a British judge's decision to block the extradition of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.
Washington is seeking to bring Assange to the US to face trial for publishing military secrets.
Why is the Assange case back in court now?
UK District Judge Vanessa Baraitser ruled against extradition in January, after determining that it was unclear that the US would be able to ensure Assange's safety in its prison system, which she said was known for "harsh conditions."
She rejected US experts' testimony that Assange would be protected from self-harm, noting that others such as disgraced US financier Jeffrey Epstein had managed to kill themselves while in custody.
Washington expressed "extreme disappointment" with Baraitser's decision, saying the judge "didn't appreciate the weight" of expert evidence that Assange was not at risk of suicide.
The US argued Baraitser was "misled" by Assange's psychiatric expert Michael Kopelman, who they claim concealed information such as that his client had fathered children while holed up in the Ecuadorian embassy in London.
Washington is now asking the UK's High Court to overturn the ruling during the new two-day hearing.
US says Assange would not face supermax jail
The US argued on Wednesday that Assange would not be held at a federal supermax prison.
Lawyer James Lewis, representing the US government, said Asssange would not be held either before or after his trial at the notorious prison.
He also said Assange "will receive any such clinical and psychological treatment as is recommended" and that he would eventually be able to apply for a prisoner transfer to his native Australia.
"There has never been a previous breach of an assurance," Lewis argued.
But Assange's team said those assurances could not entirely rule out the chance of him being detained at the facility, at a "comparable" federal prison or a state-level supermax jail. They also argued that Australia had not agreed to take him, and even if they did, the extradition process could take a decade, during which time he would be held in solitary confinement.
The US also argued that Assange did not meet the threshold of being so ill that he cannot resist harming himself.
Lewis said Assange did "not even come close to having an illness of this degree."
Assange's lawyers responded, accusing US lawyers of seeking to "minimize the severity of Mr Assange's mental disorder and suicide risk."
What does the US accuse Assange of?
The WIkiLeaks founder is wanted in the US on charges relating to the 2010 release by WikiLeaks of 500,000 secret files detailing information about the Afghanistan and Iraq military campaigns.
Assange was indicted for violating the US espionage act and for hacking. That was based on the alleged assistance he provided former military intelligence officer Chelsea Manning, who obtained the documents from secure military computer systems.
He faces a maximum sentence of 175 years in jail for the alleged crimes.
The 50-year-old Australian national had spent seven years inside the Ecuadorian embassy in London to avoid extradition to Sweden, where he faced allegations of sexual assault.
Ecuador had granted him citizenship to bolster his stay at the embassy but after several years, relations with Ecuadorian authorities became strained.
Even though the Swedish charges were dropped, he was ultimately removed from the embassy and arrested in 2019 in the UK on charges of skipping bail.
Although his extradition has been blocked, he has been denied bail pending the outcome of the US appeal, after being considered a flight risk.
Rights groups on the Assange case
Journalism organizations and human rights groups have called on US authorities to drop the charges against Assange and urged British authorities to release him immediately.
Wikileaks supporters say claims the CIA spied on Assange during his stay at the embassy suggest he will not receive a fair trial.
Amnesty International highlighted an investigation by Yahoo News revealing that US security services considered kidnapping or killing Assange when he was living in the Ecuadorian embassy in London.
Secretary-General Agnes Callamard said the report had "cast even more doubt on the reliability of US promises and further expose the political motivation behind this case."
"It is a damning indictment that nearly 20 years on, virtually no one responsible for alleged US war crimes committed in the course of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars has been held accountable, let alone prosecuted, and yet a publisher who exposed such crimes is potentially facing a lifetime in jail," she added.
By JILL LAWLESS
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LONDON (AP) — U.S. authorities launched a new battle on Wednesday to make Julian Assange face American justice, telling British judges that if they agree to extradite the WikiLeaks founder on espionage charges, he could serve any U.S. prison sentence he receives in his native Australia.
In January, a lower U.K. court refused a U.S. request to extradite Assange over WikiLeaks’ publication of secret American military documents a decade ago. District Judge Vanessa Baraitser ruled that Assange, who has spent years in hiding and in British prisons as he fights extradition, was likely to kill himself if held under harsh U.S. prison conditions.
Appealing against that decision at the High Court in London, an attorney for the U.S. government on Wednesday denied that Assange’s mental health was too fragile to withstand the U.S. judicial system. Lawyer James Lewis said Assange “has no history of serious and enduring mental illness” and does not meet the threshold of being so ill that he cannot resist harming himself.
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. The charges carry a maximum sentence of 175 years in prison, although Lewis said “the longest sentence ever imposed for this offense is 63 months.”
Lewis said American authorities had promised that Assange would not be held before trial in a top-security “Supermax” prison or subjected to strict isolation conditions, and if convicted would be allowed to serve his sentence in Australia. Lewis said the assurances “are binding on the United States.”
“Once there is an assurance of appropriate medical care, once it is clear he will be repatriated to Australia to serve any sentence, then we can safely say the district judge would not have decided the relevant question in the way that she did,” he said.
The U.S. also says a key defense witness, neuropsychiatrist Michael Kopelman, misled the previous judge by omitting to mention that Stella Moris, a member of WikiLeaks’ legal team, was also Assange’s partner and had two children with him. Lewis said that information was “a highly relevant factor to the question of likelihood to suicide.”
Assange’s lawyer, Edward Fitzgerald, accused U.S. lawyers of seeking to “minimize the severity of Mr Assange’s mental disorder and suicide risk.”
Fitzgerald said in a written submission that Australia has not yet agreed to take Assange if he is convicted. Even if Australia did agree, Fitzgerald said the U.S. legal process could take a decade, “during which Mr. Assange will remain detained in extreme isolation in a U.S. prison.”
Assange, who is being held at London’s high-security Belmarsh Prison, had been expected to attend the two-day hearing by video link, but Fitzgerald said Assange had been put on a high dose of medication and “doesn’t feel able to attend.”
Assange later appeared on the video link at times, seated at a table in a prison room wearing a black face mask.
Since WikiLeaks began publishing classified documents more than a decade ago, Assange has become a flashpoint figure. Some see him as a dangerous secret-spiller who endangered the lives of informers and others who helped the U.S. in war zones. Others say WikiLeaks shone a light on official malfeasance that governments would like to keep secret.
American prosecutors say Assange unlawfully helped U.S. Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning steal classified diplomatic cables and military files that WikiLeaks later published. Lawyers for Assange argue that he was acting as a journalist and is entitled to First Amendment freedom of speech protections for publishing documents that exposed U.S. military wrongdoing in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Several dozen pro-Assange protesters held a boisterous rally outside London’s neo-Gothic Royal Courts of Justice on Wednesday, calling the prosecution politically motivated. They urged U.S. President Joe Biden to drop the legal proceedings, which were begun under his predecessor, Donald Trump.
The demonstrators included Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei, who said Assange’s case “relates to our society, it relates to our freedom of expression, it relates to our individual human rights, and we have to watch the government.”
WikiLeaks supporters say testimony from witnesses during the extradition hearing that Assange was spied on while in Ecuador’s embassy in London by a Spanish security firm at the behest of the CIA — and that there was even talk of abducting or killing him — undermines U.S. claims he will be treated fairly.
The two justices hearing the appeal — one is England’s most senior judge, Lord Chief Justice Ian Burnett — are not expected to give their ruling for several weeks. The losing side could seek to appeal to the U.K. Supreme Court.
Assange, 50, has been in prison since he was arrested in April 2019 for skipping bail during a separate legal battle. Before that he spent seven years holed up inside Ecuador’s London embassy, where he fled in 2012 to avoid extradition to Sweden to face allegations of rape and sexual assault.
Sweden dropped the sex crimes investigations in November 2019 because so much time had elapsed. The judge who blocked extradition in January ordered that he must stay in custody during any U.S. appeal, ruling that the Australian citizen “has an incentive to abscond” if he is freed.
Outside court, Moris said it was “completely unthinkable that the U.K. courts could agree” to extradition.
“I hope the courts will end this nightmare, that Julian is able to come home soon and that wise heads prevail,” she said.
___
Associated Press writer David Keyton contributed.
Issued on: 27/10/2021 -
Text by: NEWS WIRES
The US government will on Wednesday appeal against a British judge's decision to block the extradition of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to face trial for publishing military secrets.
At a two-day hearing, Washington will ask the High Court to overturn District Judge Vanessa Baraitser's January ruling that Assange is a serious suicide threat if extradited across the Atlantic.
The United States has said it was "extremely disappointed" at her decision, arguing the judge "didn't appreciate the weight" of expert evidence that said Assange was not at risk of suicide.
Its lawyers have argued Baraitser was "misled" in evidence from Assange's psychiatric expert Michael Kopelman, who they claim concealed things such as that his client had fathered children while holed up in the Ecuadorian embassy in London.
During a preliminary hearing in August, the High Court granted the US government's request to appeal against the ruling on five grounds.
Whatever the court's two senior judges decide, months if not years of further legal wrangling loom.
If the US appeal is successful, the case will be sent back to a lower court for a new decision. And whoever loses can also ask for permission for a further, final appeal to the UK's Supreme Court.
Indicted
Assange, 50, was arrested in Britain in 2019 for jumping bail after spending seven years inside the Ecuadorian embassy to avoid extradition to Sweden where he faced allegations of sexual assault. These were later dropped.
Despite his extradition being blocked, he has been denied bail pending the outcome of the US appeal, amid fears he would abscond.
He is being held at London's high-security Belmarsh Prison, which his fiancee Stella Moris -- a former member of his legal team who is the mother of his two young boys -- this week branded "a terrible environment".
Assange is wanted in Washington to face 18 charges relating to the 2010 release by WikiLeaks of 500,000 secret files detailing aspects of military campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq.
He has been indicted for violating the US espionage act and for hacking, based on the alleged assistance he provided former military intelligence officer Chelsea Manning in obtaining the documents from secure military computer systems.
If convicted in the US, he faces a maximum sentence of 175 years in jail.
Baraitser had said it was not clear that Washington would be able to ensure his safety in US prisons known for "harsh conditions" while he awaited trial.
She rejected US experts' testimony that Assange would be protected from self-harm, noting that others such as disgraced US financier Jeffrey Epstein had managed to kill themselves in custody.
'Not survive'
Australian national Assange has a vocal campaign of supporters, led by Moris and his legal team.
Moris said on Monday that she had visited Assange in prison last weekend and was shocked by how thin he looked.
"He was looking very unwell," she said. "The point was that Julian would not survive extradition, that was the conclusion of the judge."
Legal expert Carl Tobias, from the University of Richmond in Virginia, said there was "some chance" of the US winning its appeal.
"The US may be able to convince the High Court that Baraitser assigned too much weight" to the Kopelman report, he told AFP.
"However, even if the High Court agrees with the US contention that she accorded too substantial weight to the expert report, that may not be sufficient to warrant overruling her entire decision," he added.
Advocacy group Reporters Without Borders has urged President Joe Biden to drop the case, arguing the WikiLeaks founder has been "targeted for his contributions to public-interest reporting".
Assange sought, but failed, to obtain a pardon from Biden's predecessor Donald Trump, whose 2016 election campaign benefited from WikiLeaks' release of materials that damaged his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton.
(AFP)
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