The same judge that overturned an earlier High Court decision to exclude Assange’s health from the U.S. appeal will preside over the substantive appeal hearing next week.
Lord Justice Timothy Holroyde
By Joe Lauria
Special to Consortium News
Lord Justice Timothy Holroyde, the High Court judge who reversed an earlier court order to bar the U.S. from appealing Julian Assange’s medical issues, will preside over the substantive U.S. appeal hearing at the High Court next week.
In January, lower court Judge Vanessa Baraitser refused the U.S. request to extradite the WikiLeaks publisher because of his high risk of suicide and the conditions of U.S. prisons. The U.S. applied to appeal that decision, which was granted by the High Court in July. The court allowed three of five grounds of appeal, excluding the matter of Assange’s health.
The U.S. challenged that ruling and in an Aug. 11 High Court hearing, Holroyde overturned the earlier court decision, siding with the U.S. argument that Baraitser’s finding on Assange’s health could be appealed.
That will be the central argument in the two-day hearing beginning next Wednesday at the Royal Courts of Justice in London. The U.S. says Assange is not too ill to be extradited and has accused him of being a malingerer. Joining Holroyde on the High Court bench will be Dame Judith Farbey, who remained silent during the Aug. 11 hearing.
It is highly unusual for a judge who has already ruled in favor of one party to continue on the bench, according to Consortium News legal analyst Alexander Mercouris. In most cases, fresh judges would be brought in who have had no part in earlier rulings for either side.
After the Aug. 11 hearing, Mercouris said Holroyde’s “comments made it clear” that he would not be part of the appeal panel. “If he does turn up on the panel then that would be an extremely serious development,” he said, adding that it would be “open to legal challenge if he did.” It is not known at this time whether Assange’s lawyers will challenge Holroyde’s appointment to the case.
After learning Holroyde would indeed oversee the hearing next week, Mercouris said it was “extremely disturbing news” and “very worrying. Nothing in this case is proceeding as it should do.”
Holroyde is an exemplary product of the British establishment, which has its own motives against Assange. He graduated from Bristol Grammar School and studied law at Wadham College, Oxford. He became a Queen’s Counselor in 1996, was appointed to the High Court in January 2009, was knighted in 2013 and admitted to the Privy Council in 2017.
Joe Lauria is editor-in-chief of Consortium News and a former UN correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, Boston Globe, and numerous other newspapers. He was an investigative reporter for the Sunday Times of London and began his professional work as a stringer for The New York Times. He can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter @unjoe .
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The United States of America refuses to hand-over a diplomat’s wife who fled England after she killed a nineteen year old British Boy – Harry Dunn – in a car crash.
On 27th August,2019 Harry Dunn, a Briton, was killed by a U.S. of A.’s Diplomat’s Wife, who was driving on the wrong side of the road.
Anne Sacoolas, who was driving the vehicle, will not be extradited to the United Kingdom.
With that in mind, tell the U.S. of A that they will not be receiving Mr. Julian Assange
A single proof that revenge and justice are the fruits of a ‘poisonous cocktail’!
Is precisely what the exceptionalist, self-righteous cult of rectitude, thrives on?
Isn’t that why the consumption of the drug of fake news, propaganda, is promoted so assiduously.
Constant consumption, however, of mixed truth and propaganda, is a potion that keeps the brain so
addled.
And in de’mockracy’ of Trump, he was the best bartender of them all!
Will people ever sober up and think straight?
Justice, Britain version in the Assange case in this 21st year of the 21st century brands British justice an ugly reversal of a not always but reputed to be superior entity compared with all others. Shame on you, and all involved in this railroading of an individual, no crime no culpibility unless opinionated by American political cretinous American justice akin to Guanatamano Bay “justice”. Good Australians are watching and sickened as are decent British!
Absolutely Disgusting, it is all so corrupt.
Incredible mess – like everything in this case.
In Germany, everyone has the right to their legal judge. This means that the judge in a court case is assigned by the court’s rules of procedure long before the proceedings are opened without a view of the matter. A consequence of the arbitrary justice of the Nazi dictatorship. But Great Britain is moving swiftly in this direction.
Well stated and not over so!
The appointment of a man like this judge does not surprise me. British “justice” is a joke as is the UK itself. The irony is that neither the UK nor the US do themselves any favors in their persecution of Assange. While the Mass Media ignore his plight, there is the constant drip, drip, drip of information. As both the US and the UK decline and conditions worsen for ordinary people, they will be unable to blame the usual scapegoats and gradually turn their attention to the real culprits — the plutocracies in the US and the UK. Assange is no longer just a man, unjustly confined in prison — he has become a symbol of all that is wrong in the US and the UK. I laugh when British and American politicians talk about “our democracy” and warn against “fascism”. Neither the US or the UK are democracies and fascism is part of their respective traditions.
IF he IS extradited, watch how fast a UK/US trade deal is signed
Lord.
Justice.
Timothy and Holroyde and Lord and Justice sit well together in that long string of pearls.
But what are Julians chances in the face of this fellow-me-lad do we thunks ?
Bookies odds 7 to 1 against anything like Justice entering Lord Holroydes dox.
In the big picture; for Transhumanist sustainable population Agenda to succeed at Global scale 60-80% reduction, journalism and truth has to Be destroyed because to do otherwise leads to accountability for mass Extinctions and Genocide (by means of unjust Wars, Chaos Creation, hybrid viruses & viral PsyOp memes). All “this ecosystem” is inbuilt into integrating Law, Courts and Judges to produce predetermined and “desired outcomes” dictated by the very few. To expect a Fair Hearing & Trial is neither realistic nor logical or anchored in reality. The world integrated andcollapsed its (global).consciousness into “Collective State of Evil”. Mass isolation, control, learnt helplessness, obedience, silence and complicity of those 80% who are most Affected by ‘Inverted Truths and Logic”. Jullian Assange is not on Trial here, “we” all are. To Oxford and Cambridge … shame on you for producing learned men into high offives totally lacking in charachter and integrity — Tiina Ison on behalf of the Common Wealth.
Is not the headine a conflict of interest, since he already chose sides, how can he be impartial to the facts presented now?
Impossible to get a fair judgment with a biased judge. This should not be allowed and is suspicious as hell
The 21st Century Man in the Iron Mask will shortly be disappeared and removed from public consciousness. The nessage is clear. Publish evidence of imperial crimes and you get rubbed out.
Dear Ms Chorush, this is not a legal matter, it is purely political run by the vengeance politics of two thin-skinned organizations whose embarrassing actions were exposed ( but only slightly) by Julian Assange: Hillary Clinton and the CIA who backed her.
Yes, indeed, Anonymot! The so called justice system has been compromised by politics, turning “Justice” into a farce.
(Interestingly, for a long time judges have been appointed from the narrow world of corporate law, a world where “corporations are people my friends”; but if Adam Smith, the father of capitalism came back, and saw what was being done in his name, he’d “never stop throwing up” as Woody Allen might say.)
As Joe Lauria suggests, maybe someone on the inside who sees this dysfunction, worries that people have lost faith in its integrity and fears for the stability of the country and its institutions will undertake what needs to be done to right the ship.
The only agenda the people on the inside of both governments have is protecting their empire. We have not evolved since the days of old it seems except to invent ever more efficient means of repressing and killing those who stand in the way of the theft of the commons and those who expose the theft and murder.
I can only agree that justice still seems like an optimistic dream at this point in the proceedings….
“Holroyde is an exemplary product of the British establishment, which has its own motives against Assange.”
In other words, a modern-day High Sheriff of Nottingham who will pompously and gleefully expedite the judicial murder of Julian Assange, a modern-day Robin Hood. So much for the myth of British decency and democracy.
I’ve always had something of Peter Pan in me that has refused to face the reality of a world like this.
Would it not be a conflict of interest?
You would think so, right?
I mean, its not only obvious, its blatant.
But, no…..not in 2021
All we can do is hope that Assange’s lawyers do challenge Holroyde’s appointment! I am in a state of continued shock from this entire case… hoping justice prevails seems like an optimistic dream at this point. Those who have a hand in this have a special place in hell waiting for them. Beyond immoral, unjust, inconceivable and very, very corrupt.
You got that right . A corrupt world in the courts is scary but probably always been so . There is a better way by following our Father in Heaven with His rules ???
Thanks, Joe Lauria, for this troubling news.
It seems like the complicit lap dogs on the other side of the pond are dead set on cheating justice for their pals-in-crime on this side of the pond. And it’s a darn shame that political hack Pompeo’s personal attacks on journalism has, so far, gone unchallenged in this admisinstration.
So thanks, Joe Lauria, for your October 11th piece “Who Will Step Up in Biden’s DOJ to Save Julian Assange?”
Because it’s virtually impossible for a plebe to reach the entitled British bureaucracy…
However with the help of your 10/11/21 piece, I sent my concerns to the AAG, see below.
I’ve been pleasantly surprised that this Justice Dept has had the courage and public interest to make it easy for a plebe to be able to contact the officers of the Justice Dept via FAX or email. That’s refreshing. I hope the letters get read.
Given that our main concern is saving journalism and surely the greatest publisher of all time of investigative reports, Julian Assange, I will leave it to you whether or not you wish to publish this comment and/or my letter to the AAG:
10/18/21
Vanita Gupta,
Associate Attorney General
United States Department of Justice
Dear Associate Attorney General Gupta,
Former CIA Director, Mike Pompeo, we recently learned, used his office to abuse our justice system to viciously go after a courageous journalist because that journalist, Julian Assange, embarrassed him by sharing with the people of this country (who paid his salary and expected him and the Central intelligence Agency to serve the general interest, not himself) the Wikileaks’ Vault 7 files. The troubling exposé of criminal wrongdoing (done in our name with our tax dollars) informed us that we are engaged in endless, brutal for profit regime change wars which make this country less safe while throwing $trillions to the profiteers of the MIC.
This country is going off the rails with corruption, IMO – recently two Federal Reserve Bank CEO’s resigned when they were caught trading $millions in financial contracts, including highly leveraged S&P 500 futures while they were privy to non public information.
It is obscene to me that unbelievably courageous whistleblowers risk everything to tell us the truth about wrongdoing and are punished instead of honored for doing the right thing.
When the JFK School at Harvard withdrew Chelsea Manning’s honorary degree, I emailed about 200 associates there with my concerns over their buckling to the threats of political hacks, Pompeo and Moran. I heard back from only one, a woman who tried to shut me up with the words “National Security”.
It’s all a terrible joke. This country is in trouble.
“Retired CIA intelligence analyst, turned political activist, Ray McGovern who chaired the National Intelligence Estimates in the 1980s, prepared daily briefs for Presidents John F. Kennedy to George H.W. Bush, and received the Intelligence Commendation Medal, which he returned in 2006 in protest of the CIA’s involvement in torture, founded the Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity, an organization committed to analyzing and criticizing the use of intelligence, in 2003” and perceptively renamed Eisenhower’s MIC, the “MICIMATT” – military, industrial, congressional, intelligence, media, academia, think tank complex. I got a taste of the “academia” part with the JFK School’s shameful treatment of Chelsea Manning.
These violations of what this country stands for must stop with our justice department. What other institution do we have? Although members of our Supreme Court now seem to be a possible source of strength to do what’s right given Marjorie Cohn’s recent article:
“Biden Tells Supreme Court Torture Is a State Secret”
hXXps://consortiumnews.com/2021/10/10/biden-tells-supreme-court-torture-is-a-state-secret/
If Attorney General Garland, as chief law enforcement officer of this country, hopefully with your support (see article linked to below), if you agree with the thrust of what I’m trying to express, puts his foot down and brings these unlawful charges against journalist Julian Assange to an end it will help heal this country.
Please see: “Who Will stand for Justice at Justice”:
hXXps://consortiumnews.com/2021/10/11/who-will-step-up-in-bidens-doj-to-save-julian-assange/://consortiumnews.com/2021/10/11/who-will-step-up-in-bidens-doj-to-save-julian-assange/ )
These charges against Assange are a threat to our constitutionally guaranteed free speech and to the well functioning of the Fourth Estate. It is so discouraging that the people of this country are considered a threat to the power structure and therefore must be kept in the dark.
Our lawless CIA murders innocent people if they divine that it’s convenient to their interests which ARE NOT the interests of the vast majority of people in this country, IMO – quite the opposite. They seem to serve only the short term financial interests of the oligarchs and predatory too big to fail banks who covet the natural resources of countries where brown and black people live.
Our “best and brightest” from before the Vietnam era to the present day, believe they have a right and the qualifications to interfere in the affairs of other countries; here at home they are nowhere to be seen as we struggle to manage the existential threats of pandemics, climate disruption and we waste precious resources to fatten a shortsighted oligarch class who also profit from the unending wars. The CIA, as you may know, has, apparently, remained behind in Afghanistan with their deadly drone strikes that understandably create “useful”enemies when they cavalierly kill innocent people.
The people of this country trusted Bernie Sanders because he tells the truth and cares about average working people here at home and around the world. Some Trump voters would have voted for Sanders but that was unacceptable to the oligarchs who are served, sadly, by the GOP and DNC establishment who they fund.
I would love to see our justice department do the right thing and withdraw the discredited charges against Assange. That would give millions of people confidence, IMO, that we have the backbone to stand up to wrongdoing by the most powerful. And give people hope that we are finally committed to serving the highest principles of our democracy.
Thanks very much and best wishes,
Evelyn Chorush, Houston
Retired municipal bond institutional sales person
Retired Dem election judge and pct chair
I appreciate very much your impassioned and articulate letter re: Assange. I hope it finds a human (e) reader. Best, Erik
Bravo! Wonderfully forthright:
But why do you feel that the complicit lap dogs on the other side of the pond are any different from those on this side? After all, aren’t
they ‘our’ lap dogs?
Is she, Vanita Gupta, Associate Attorney General of the United States Department of Justice, not fully subservient to the Attorney
General, who is beholden to the President, who is nothing more than a long-term political hack for the one two-faced party of
oligarchic corporate power.
Good questions, EM!
Yes, both sides have been lapdogs for the for profit greedy warmongers on behalf of whom our government crafts policies to enrich the war mongers’ short term financial interests.
I had in mind my past failures to reach someone at the British Embassy and Australian Embassy who were willing to answer questions and take opinions from the public – the only time I was successful was reaching a security guard who listened and said they’d try to pass along my concerns. Aside from that they go out of their way to make themselves inaccessible except for passport issues, etc.
I’ve had the same problems reaching through the bureaucracy at Federal and State and sometimes local agencies here in the U.S. who don’t want to be bothered, it seems. True in the state of Texas at the Governor’s office.
So I was surprised that the current Justice Dept in the U.S. seems to be welcoming input from the public which was new to me.
And therefore, given how we all seem to feel, after decades of endless costly regime change wars, about the secretive, corrupt, for profit foreign policy and the damage it does to those who serve (those that are asked to bomb/drone innocents), those of us whose lives are harder because of misdirected $trillions into wars, and concerned people all over the country, that perhaps if we take advantage of the accessibility of the Dept of Justice and the Courts and make our views known that the current administration might think twice about their support of previous administrations’ criminal assault on whistleblowers who risk all to keep the public informed of the wrongdoing.
So bottom line, the Brits, are unreachable – try calling their embassy. Their royalty acts as third rate used car salespeople wrt the arms industry and so there seems to be no hope there.:
hxxps://consortiumnews DOT com/2021/10/15/an-english-villages-dirty-secret/
It’s still early in the Biden administration and although very disappointing that they are currently marching to Pomeo’s tune, that one has to hope that before the Pompeo’s of this world succeed in martyring a man beloved around the world for his civic minded courage, Julian Assange, that wiser heads at Justice or at the Supreme Court will finally address face the truth about these crimes and recognize that to have credibility in the eyes of a discouraged public, put their collective foot down to reverse this ugly trajectory.
As far as the AAG is concerned the 3rd video down at this link shares this encouraging comment about Vanita Gupta and why maybe there’s some hope that she will step up at justice to push for the right thing :
hxxps://twitter DOTcom/wyattreed13/status/1410658259778801664
This video was included in Joe Lauria’s October 11, 2021 piece :
“Who Will Step Up in Biden’s DOJ to Save Julian Assange?”
hxxps://consortiumnews DOT com/2021/10/11/who-will-step-up-in-bidens-doj-to-save-julian-assange/
From the article:
“While outside pressure may fall short, dropping the Assange case might instead require pressure from within Garland’s office, from someone like a Daniel Foote. That someone could be U.S. Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta, the third most powerful person in the Justice Department.”
I can feel your anger and hurt in being tricked since our earliest years into believing in our country as a place of freedom and democracy. The plight of Julian Assange, and let us not forget that of both Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning, is a true showing of what the United States of America in actuality stands for. That flag which “so proudly waves” and that anthem we all, well most of us, stand and sing like so many puppets in a theater has become a blight on so many. Our government cannot stand the truth of our government’s endless wars and brutality toward other people coming once again into the light of honest history. One only need read Howard Zinn’s excellent accounting of our history to appreciate how we have been lied to since our earliest days in school. Julian Assange is being tortured by the British government at our own government’s dictate. And, “We the People” sit silently as our fellow human suffers an agony only he and those close to him can understand.
thank you for the information above.
What degree of freemasonry does he have and which Lodge?