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LONDON: Julian Assange’s lawyers opened a final UK legal challenge on Tuesday to stop the WikiLeaks founder from being sent to the US to face spying charges, arguing that American authorities are seeking to punish him for exposing serious criminal acts by the US state.
Lawyer Edward Fitzgerald said Assange may “suffer a flagrant denial of justice” if he is sent to the US. At a two-day high court hearing, Assange’s attorneys are asking judges to grant a new appeal, his last legal roll of the dice in Britain. Assange himself was not in court. Fitzgerald said the 52-year-old Australian was unwell but did not elaborate on his health.
Assange has been fighting extradition for more than a decade, including seven years in self-exile in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London and the last five years in the high-security prison on the outskirts of the British capital. He has been indicted on 17 charges of espionage and one charge of computer misuse over his website’s publication of classified US documents almost 15 years ago. US prosecutors say Assange helped US army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning steal diplomatic cables and military files that WikiLeaks later published, putting lives at risk. To his supporters, Assange is a secrecy-busting journalist who exposed US military wrongdoing in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Hundreds of supporters holding “Free Julian Assange” signs gathered outside the neo-Gothic high court in London. Assange’s wife Stella, referring to the Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny who died in prison last week, said: “What happened to Navalny can happen to Julian, and will happen to Julian if he is extradited.”
If the judges rule against Assange, he can ask the European Court of Human Rights to block his extradition – though supporters worry he could be put on a plane to the US before that happens, because the UK govt has already signed an extradition order. His lawyers say he could face up to 175 years in jail if convicted, though US authorities have said the sentence is likely to be much shorter. Assange’s attorneys argued that the prosecution is politically motivated retaliation for WikiLeaks’ “exposure of criminality on the part of the US government on an unprecedented scale,” including torture and killings.
“The US was prepared to go to any lengths (including misusing its own criminal justice system) to sustain impunity for US officials in respect of the torture/war crimes committed in its infamous ‘war on terror,’ and to suppress those actors and courts willing and prepared to try to bring those crimes to account,” Assange’s lawyers said in written arguments. “Mr. Assange was one of those targets.”
Lawyer Edward Fitzgerald said Assange may “suffer a flagrant denial of justice” if he is sent to the US. At a two-day high court hearing, Assange’s attorneys are asking judges to grant a new appeal, his last legal roll of the dice in Britain. Assange himself was not in court. Fitzgerald said the 52-year-old Australian was unwell but did not elaborate on his health.
Assange has been fighting extradition for more than a decade, including seven years in self-exile in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London and the last five years in the high-security prison on the outskirts of the British capital. He has been indicted on 17 charges of espionage and one charge of computer misuse over his website’s publication of classified US documents almost 15 years ago. US prosecutors say Assange helped US army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning steal diplomatic cables and military files that WikiLeaks later published, putting lives at risk. To his supporters, Assange is a secrecy-busting journalist who exposed US military wrongdoing in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Hundreds of supporters holding “Free Julian Assange” signs gathered outside the neo-Gothic high court in London. Assange’s wife Stella, referring to the Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny who died in prison last week, said: “What happened to Navalny can happen to Julian, and will happen to Julian if he is extradited.”
If the judges rule against Assange, he can ask the European Court of Human Rights to block his extradition – though supporters worry he could be put on a plane to the US before that happens, because the UK govt has already signed an extradition order. His lawyers say he could face up to 175 years in jail if convicted, though US authorities have said the sentence is likely to be much shorter. Assange’s attorneys argued that the prosecution is politically motivated retaliation for WikiLeaks’ “exposure of criminality on the part of the US government on an unprecedented scale,” including torture and killings.
“The US was prepared to go to any lengths (including misusing its own criminal justice system) to sustain impunity for US officials in respect of the torture/war crimes committed in its infamous ‘war on terror,’ and to suppress those actors and courts willing and prepared to try to bring those crimes to account,” Assange’s lawyers said in written arguments. “Mr. Assange was one of those targets.”
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