[ad_1]
LONDON (AP) – WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange will find out on Monday if he can be extradited from the UK to the US to face charges of espionage for the publication of secret US military documents.
District Judge Vanessa Baraitser is due to deliver her ruling at the Old Bailey courthouse in London at 10 a.m. on Monday. If she accepts the request, UK Home Secretary Priti Patel would make the final decision.
The losing side is expected to appeal, which could lead to more years of legal wrangling.
However, it is possible that outside forces may come into play, which could instantly end the decade-long saga.
Stella Moris, Assange’s partner and mother of his two sons, has called on US President Donald Trump via Twitter to grant Assange a pardon before he leaves office on January 20.
And even if Trump does not, there is speculation that his successor, Joe Biden, may take a more lenient approach in Assange’s extradition process.
U.S. prosecutors have charged 49-year-old Assange with 17 charges of espionage and one charge of computer misuse, carrying a maximum sentence of 175 years in prison.
Lawyers acting on behalf of the US government said in oral argument after the four-week hearing in the fall that Assange’s defense team had raised issues that were neither relevant nor admissible.
“The defense continually calls on this court to find or act on the basis of the declaration that the United States of America is guilty of torture, war crimes, murder, violations of diplomatic law and international and that the United States of America is a lawless state, ”they said. “These observations are not only non-justiciable in these proceedings, but they should never have been presented.”
Assange’s defense team argued that he was entitled to First Amendment protections for the publication of leaked documents that exposed the wrongdoing of the US military in Iraq and Afghanistan and that the US extradition request was politically motivated.
In their written submissions, Assange’s legal team accused the United States of an “extraordinary, unprecedented and politicized” lawsuit that constitutes “a blatant denial of his right to free speech and poses a fundamental threat. for the freedom of the press in the world. “
Defense attorneys also said Assange suffers from widespread mental health issues, including suicidal tendencies, which could be exacerbated if placed in inhospitable prison conditions in the United States.
They said his mental health had deteriorated as he took asylum in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London for years and was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. Assange waived his bail in 2012 when he applied for asylum at the embassy, where he stayed for seven years before being deported and arrested. He has been held at Belmarsh Prison in London since April 2019.
His legal team argued that Assange, if extradited, would likely be placed in solitary confinement, which would put him at increased risk of suicide. They said if he was subsequently convicted he would likely be sent to the infamous ADX Supermax prison in Colorado, which is also home to Unabomber Ted Kaczynski and Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman.
Lawyers for the US government have argued that Assange’s mental condition “is clearly not severe enough to prevent extradition.”
Assange has attracted the support of prominent figures including Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei and actress Pamela Anderson.
Daniel Ellsberg, the famous American whistleblower, also came out in favor, telling the audience that they had “very comparable political views”.
The 89-year-old, widely credited with helping end the Vietnam War by leaking the Pentagon Papers in 1971, said the American public “urgently needed to know what was being done on their behalf on a regular basis. , and there was no other way for them to find out than through unauthorized disclosure. “
There are clear echoes between Assange and Ellsberg, who leaked over 7,000 pages of classified documents to the press, including the New York Times and the Washington Post. Ellsberg was subsequently tried on 12 counts relating to violations of the espionage law, which carried 115 years in prison. The charges were dismissed in 1973 due to the government’s fault against him.
Assange and his legal team are hopeful that developments in the United States will put an end to his ordeal if the judge accepts the American extradition request.
[ad_2]
Source link