British justice defines whether Julian should be extradited …

The London Old Bailey court will decide on Monday whether to extradite WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to the United States. The Australian journalist is charged with espionage for disseminating confidential material under the 1917 Espionage Act, which is unprecedented in history. The 49-year-old activist was arrested in April 2019 at the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where he was granted asylum in 2012. He is being held in Belmarsh Maximum Security Prison, located south-east of the English capital.

Despite restrictions imposed to stem the coronavirus pandemic, a protest is planned outside the Old Bailey, where the court hearing will take place. Assange partner, Stella Morris, with whom she shares two small children, will be present on the site accompanied by her legal team. In an article published in the Mail on Sunday, Morris He noted that if the court rules against Assange, the decision “would be a disaster for the UK, both politically and legally.”

During the four weeks of the trial, several psychiatrists gave their testimony, which assured that the journalist suffers from an “autism spectrum disorder” and presents a “risk of suicide”. if he is handed over to the United States, which he has tried to avoid since his arrest in London in 2010 at Sweden’s request for alleged sex crimes that have already been shelved.

Many academics consider that The espionage law, which has never been used to prosecute a journalist so far, raises troubling constitutional issues because it violates the First Amendment rights to receive and publish information. In an open letter to President Donald Trump, an independent UN human rights expert asked the president to forgive Assange on the eve of the Old Bailey court ruling.

“Mr. Assange has been arbitrarily deprived of his liberty over the past ten years,” Nils Melzer wrote, Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. “It is a high price to pay for having the courage to publish truthful information about government wrongdoing around the world,” he said.

The WikiLeaks platform joined the complaint and called on the US authorities to drop the charges against its founder. “The mere fact that this case has reached the courts, not to say that it has taken so long, presupposes a historic large-scale attack on free speech, ”said Kristinn Hrafnsson, director of WikiLeaks. Hrafnsson recalled that “it is a fight which affects the right to know of all and which is carried out collectively”.

In the past few hours, Assange has been nominated for the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize by Irish activist Mairead Maguire, also awarded this distinction for his contribution to ending violence in Northern Ireland.

Maguire, founder of the Peace Movement, It included in the Nobel Peace Prize’s proposal the founder of WikiLeaks, former US soldier Chelsea Manning and his compatriot and also former intelligence analyst, Edward Snowden. In the letter sent to the Nobel Committee, Maguire highlights the example that “every candidate” has set by “individually” exposing the “truth of illegal government actions” at a “high cost to their freedom and their lives”.

Assange will hear Judge Baraitser’s ruling on the extradition request to the United States on Monday on charges related to the publication of confidential military and diplomatic reports. Assange has 18 counts of espionage and information hacking on his back, could face 175 years in prison under “Special administrative measures”, a particularly severe version of solitary confinement.

WikiLeaks is expected to appeal a possible extradition of Assange, which means his transfer to the United States could be extended indefinitely. Both parties have the right to appeal the decision taken by Baraitser in this exceptional case which could reach the British Supreme Court and the Strasbourg Court of Human Rights.