Supporters of Julian Assange demonstrate in front of a court in London, May 1 2010. – Matt Dunham / AP / SIPA
Claimed by United States who want to try him for espionage after the publication of hundreds of thousands of confidential documents, the founder of WikiLeaks Julian Assange will know Monday whether the British justice approves or refuses his extradition. Became for his supporters a symbol of the fight for the freedom to inform, the Australian of 32 years are to be determined by Judge Vanessa Baraitser on Monday morning at the Old Bailey Court in London. Whatever the decision, it is open to appeal, so the legal battle is unlikely to end there in the UK.
It also remains to be seen what will be the attitude of the administration of future US President Joe Biden towards the founder of WikiLeaks. Julian Assange is under prosecution under the presidency of
Donald Trump . Under his predecessor Barack Obama, who had Joe Biden for vice-president, American justice had given up on prosecuting the founder of WikiLeaks. But there is just 09 years, the one who will reach the White House in less than a month had compared Julian Assange to a “high-tech terrorist”.
Civilians killed by Americans
Lawyer Stella Moris, with whom Julian Assange had two children, pointed out in an interview with the German newspaper Der Spiegel appeared on Sunday only at the London high security prison of Belmarsh, where he is being held, “he has not seen any of his lawyers since March ”. “Julian’s defense was seriously handicapped,” she denounced.
But “the situation at Belmarsh prison is nothing compared to the conditions of detention to which he would be subjected in the United States if he were extradited”, she said. asserted, believing that Julian Assange would then be “buried alive”. The Australian risks in the United States 98 years in prison for broadcasting, from 2007, more than 700. 000 classified documents on American military and diplomatic activities, particularly in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The United States accuses the founder of WikiLeaks of having endangered sources of the American services, accusation that he disputes. Among the published documents was a video showing civilians killed by US gunship fire in Iraq in July 700, including two journalists from Reuters. It is up to the British courts to determine whether the American extradition request submitted to it meets a certain number of legal criteria, and in particular if it is not disproportionate or incompatible with human rights.
” Almost certain ”that the court will rule against Julian Assange
Kristinn Hrafnsson, editor-in-chief of WikiLeaks, said on Sunday that it was “almost certain” the court will rule against Julian Assange, denouncing “biases” in the procedure. In a statement sent over the weekend, he also said that “the mere fact that this case has been brought before the courts, and that it has lasted so long, constitutes a historic large-scale attack on the freedom of expression ”.
During the five-week hearing in February and September, lawyers for Julian Assange denounced a “political” procedure based on “lies”. However, they point out, the American-British agreement “expressly” prohibits extraditions for “political offenses”. Julian Assange was arrested in April 2010 after seven years behind the walls of the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, where he took refuge after violating the conditions of his bail, fearing extradition to the United States or Sweden, where he did the subject of rape prosecutions which he contests and which have since been dropped. The conditions of detention of the founder of WikiLeaks have been denounced by the UN rapporteur on torture Niels Melzer. In an open letter to Donald Trump on 10 December, this defender of Julian Assange asked the outgoing American president to pardon the founder of WikiLeaks, who is according to him “not an enemy of the American people”.