LONDON, UK - Reports from the Crown Court of the United Kingdom have revealed that attorneys representing WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange have launched his final fight against extradition to the United States, where he faces 17 charges of espionage and one charge of computer misuse.
Assange was charged with facilitating the theft of classified diplomatic cables and military files by the convicted spy and former United States Army Private First Class Bradley Manning and publishing their contents to WikiLeaks in 2010 and 2011 according to the Associated Press.
Simon Ateba of Today News Africa and podcast host Russel Brand both shared videos to X of the massive protests outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London.
As reported by the BBC, Assange, who has been held in Belmarsh Prison since 2019, is launching an appeal on the premise from his legal team that his extradition would violate UK law in a two-day hearing set to conclude Wednesday. Should Assange's appeal fail, his extradition could occur in a matter of weeks.
The WikiLeaks founder's attorneys have claimed that his prosecution is "politically motivated," and that in the process of releasing the stolen documents, "Mr Assange was exposing serious criminality." Barrister Edward Fitzgerald KC, argued that his client is "being prosecuted for engaging in [the] ordinary journalistic practice of obtaining and publishing classified information - information that is both true and of obvious and important public interest."
Another member of the team, Mark Summers KC, put forth the argument that the United States government has sought Assange's extradition as an act of retribution for his political opinions. Retribution is one of the specific conditions that would preclude extradition under the regulations of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).
Congressman Thomas Massie (R-KY) along with 13 fellow members of the House of Representatives and Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) issued a bi-partisan letter, in which law makers including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and other members of "The Squad," called upon President Biden to drop the extradition request immediately and "halt all prosecutorial proceedings against him."
In the letter, the legislators expressed overwhelming support for Assange's actions stating, "We believe the Department of Justice acted correctly in 2013, during your vice-presidency, when it declined to pursue charges against Mr. Assange for publishing the classified documents because it recognized that the prosecution would set a dangerous precedent.
"We note that the 1917 Espionage Act was ostensibly intended to punish and imprison government employees and contractors for providing or selling state secrets to enemy governments, not to punish journalists and whistleblowers for attempting to inform the public about serious issues that some U.S. government officials might prefer to keep secret."
If extradited and convicted, Assange faces up to 175 years in prison.
Assange was charged with facilitating the theft of classified diplomatic cables and military files by the convicted spy and former United States Army Private First Class Bradley Manning and publishing their contents to WikiLeaks in 2010 and 2011 according to the Associated Press.
Simon Ateba of Today News Africa and podcast host Russel Brand both shared videos to X of the massive protests outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London.
As reported by the BBC, Assange, who has been held in Belmarsh Prison since 2019, is launching an appeal on the premise from his legal team that his extradition would violate UK law in a two-day hearing set to conclude Wednesday. Should Assange's appeal fail, his extradition could occur in a matter of weeks.
The WikiLeaks founder's attorneys have claimed that his prosecution is "politically motivated," and that in the process of releasing the stolen documents, "Mr Assange was exposing serious criminality." Barrister Edward Fitzgerald KC, argued that his client is "being prosecuted for engaging in [the] ordinary journalistic practice of obtaining and publishing classified information - information that is both true and of obvious and important public interest."
Another member of the team, Mark Summers KC, put forth the argument that the United States government has sought Assange's extradition as an act of retribution for his political opinions. Retribution is one of the specific conditions that would preclude extradition under the regulations of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).
Congressman Thomas Massie (R-KY) along with 13 fellow members of the House of Representatives and Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) issued a bi-partisan letter, in which law makers including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and other members of "The Squad," called upon President Biden to drop the extradition request immediately and "halt all prosecutorial proceedings against him."
In the letter, the legislators expressed overwhelming support for Assange's actions stating, "We believe the Department of Justice acted correctly in 2013, during your vice-presidency, when it declined to pursue charges against Mr. Assange for publishing the classified documents because it recognized that the prosecution would set a dangerous precedent.
"We note that the 1917 Espionage Act was ostensibly intended to punish and imprison government employees and contractors for providing or selling state secrets to enemy governments, not to punish journalists and whistleblowers for attempting to inform the public about serious issues that some U.S. government officials might prefer to keep secret."
If extradited and convicted, Assange faces up to 175 years in prison.
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Comments
2024-02-23T01:51-0500 | Comment by: Barbara
What Assange did was simply provide information as a journalist. It is insanity on the part of our government to go against our Constitution and threaten a journalist with 175 yers for simply providing the public with the truth. What is wrong with those in government? Don't they know anything about the Bill of Rights? The First Amendment gives people the right to say what they think and provides freedom of the press. He was not harming anyone by simply providing information. Those who go against the Constitution are traitors and face a far more serious penalty for what they are doing.