The British government gave Green light for the extradition of Julian Assange to the United States on charges of alleged espionage. The creator of Wikileaks, meanwhile, will have 14 days to present his appeal and prevent Washington from falling for him with everything for having leaked sensitive documentation 12 years ago. Amnesty International warned that the decision “puts the journalist at risk”..
The London decision was made by Home Secretary Priti Patel, almost two months after a British court judge issued a surrender order on April 20 from the Australian. “Under the Extradition Law of 2003, the Minister of the Interior must sign an extradition order if he does not find arguments to prohibit the order from being issued,” said a spokesman for that ministry.
“Julian did nothing wrong”
“It’s a black day for freedom of the press and British democracy”denounced the site wikileaks, who through his lawyers anticipated that he will file an appeal. “The British Home Secretary approved the extradition of WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange to the United States, where runs the risk of being sentenced to 175 years” from jail, warned the site.
Julian “didn’t do anything wrong. He has not committed any crime and is not a criminal. He is a journalist and editor, and he is being punished for doing his job. He was in Priti Patel’s power to do the right thing. Instead, she will always be remembered as America’s accomplice in her plan to turn investigative journalism into a criminal enterprise,” she added.
“A chilling message to journalists around the world”
On several occasions, the United States announced its willingness to try Assange for the leak of 700 thousand documents from the White House and the Pentagon, mostly about Iraq and Afghanistan. They award him a sum of charges of espionage and computer intrusion for which he would accumulate 175 years in prison.
Not only will Assange have two weeks to present his formal appeal to the High Court, but he will also his defense would ultimately have the option of appealing to the European Court of Human Rights.
International Amnesty shouted to the sky. His secretary general, Agnès Callamard, regretted the decision and warned that “allowing Julian Assange to be extradited to the United States would place him at great risk and sends a chilling message to journalists around the world.”
He also pointed out that “if the extradition proceeds, Amnesty International is extremely concerned that Assange will face a high risk of solitary confinement prolonged, which would violate the prohibition of (exercising) torture or another degrading treatment“.
To catch up, he British Home Office It held that “the British courts did not find the process of extraditing Assange to be oppressive, unfair or an abuse of process.” “Nor that extradition is incompatible with their human rights, such as the right to a fair trial and freedom of expression.and that while he is in the United States he is going to be treated appropriately, as far as his health is concerned.”
On the contrary, Amnesty indicated that “diplomatic assurances provided by the United States that Assange will not be placed in solitary confinement can’t be taken seriously given his prior record.” Faced with this possibility, Callamard added, “we call on the UK to refrain from extraditing Julian Assange, for the US to drop the charges, and for Assange to be released.”
“They should be ashamed”
After the data leak was published, Assange repeatedly dodged Washington’s attempts to arrest him. In 2012while in London, and was again required took refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy in that city to avoid being extradited to Sweden on rape charges that were later dropped.
He was confined there for a protection granted by then President Rafael Correa until 2019, that his successor, Lenin Moreno, withdrew that protection. He was then detained by British police and housed in London’s high-security Belmarsh prison.
In January 2021, the British justice decided in his favor: Judge Vanessa Baraitser rejected the extradition on the grounds that the Australian, in fragile physical and psychological health, was at risk of committing suicide in the US prison system. However, on April 20, a magistrate of the Court signed an extradition order and left the effectiveness of that measure in the hands of the British government.
“Anyone in this country who cares about free speech should be deeply ashamed that the Minister of the Interior has approved the extradition of Julian Assange to the US, the country that planned his assassination,” the Wikileaks statement said.