The High Court in London ruled Monday that Julian Assange can appeal his extradition to the U.S. on the grounds that he is being denied his First Amendment rights.
Assange supporters crowd in front of Royal Courts of Justice in London on Monday. (Joe Lauria)
By Joe Lauria
in London
Special to Consortium News
The High Court in London on Monday granted Julian Assange the right to appeal the order to extradite him to the United States on the grounds the U.S. did not satisfy the court that it would allow Assange a First Amendment defense in a U.S. trial.
“We spent a lot of time listening to the United States putting lipstick on a pig, but the judges didn’t buy it,” Stella Assange told reporters outside the court building. “As a family we are relieved but how long can this go on? The United States should read the situation and drop the case now.”
Assange has been imprisoned in London’s notorious Belmarsh Prison for more than five years on remand pending the outcome of his extradition. He must now spend an untold number of more months in the maximum security prison awaiting the start of his appeal.
In that sense it was a bitter victory for Assange. He gets to stay in prison another year or more, Joe Biden doesn’t have to worry about a journalist showing up in chains in Alexandria, VA during a presidential campaign and of course Assange could lose his appeal and arrive in the U.S. at a more opportune time for Biden.
In another sense, it was a victory for the supremacy of European law when it comes to free speech,
Background to Monday’s Action
The High Court in London on March 26 had ruled that Assange had three grounds to appeal, because 1). his extradition was incompatible with his free speech rights enshrined in the European Convention on Human Rights; 2.) that he might be prejudiced because of his nationality (not being given 1st Amendment protection as a non-American) and 3). because he had inadequate protection against the death penalty. (Without such protection Britain cannot extradite him.).
Rather than proceed with the appeal on those three grounds, the High Court gave the U.S. the chance, fours years after the extradition process began, to promise it would not use the death penalty, and to guarantee his free speech rights.
Because it is an executive branch decision, the U.S. was able to assure the British government that it would not seek the death penalty, and Assange’s lawyers on Monday said they did not contest that. Left unexplained, however, was why the British home office waited four years to seek what is normally a routine assurance in an extradition case.
US Loses an Argument
Gabriel and John Shipton, Julian Assange’s brother and father, arriving to court Monday. (Joe Lauria)
The free speech issue was more complicated because a decision about Assange asserting a First Amendment defense at trial will be up to a U.S. federal court and not the Department of Justice. Therefore the DOJ could not issue such an assurance on the free speech issue.
That ultimately led the two judges, Justice Jeremy Johnson and Victoria Sharp, to allow Assange to launch a formal appeal of his extradition because of an apparent violation of British extradition law, based on the European Convention on Human Rights, that requires the receiving country to allow an extradited person the right to free speech.
Johnson and Sharp did not buy the convoluted argument of James Lewis KC for the United States, on why the U.S. should get their hands on Assange despite being unable to guarantee his freedom of expression.
Edward Fitzgerald KC, and Mark Summers KC, barristers for Assange, easily picked apart three pieces of Lewis’ somewhat desperate presentation:
- pointing out how Lewis had misled the court by saying the U.S. assurance would allow Assange to rely on the First Amendment, when in fact it says he can “seek to rely” on it;
- how none of a slew of case law Lewis cited to supposedly bolster his argument actually dealt with a trial, which of course Assange will, if he goes to the U.S.;
- that saying Chelsea Manning was not able to invoke First Amendment rights in defense of leaking classified defense information meant Assange shouldn’t either was “nonsense” because Manning was a government whistleblower who had signed non-disclosure agreements and Assange is a publisher.
The judges apparently also rejected a drawn-out, arcane and overly lawyered argument from Lewis about the difference between citizenship and nationality that to most laymen was nearly incomprehensible.
A Watershed Moment
“This was a watershed moment in this very long battle,” said WikiLeaks Editor-in-Chief Kristinn at an event following the hearing. “Today marked the beginning of the end of the persecution. The signaling from the courts here in London was clear to the U.S. government: We don’t believe your guarantees, we don’t believe in your assurances.”
1st Amendment & Espionage Act
The First Amendment is at the core of the unconstitutionality of the Espionage Act, which makes no exception for a journalist to possess and disseminate defense information.
The Assange case could lead to a constitutional challenge of it, said Marjorie Cohn, former president of the National Lawyers’ Guild. That may be one reason the Department of Justice does not want Assange to invoke the First Amendment in court.
The U.S.-U.K. Extradition Act “bars extradition if an individual might be prejudiced due to his nationality and due to the centrality of the First Amendment to his defense,” Cohn told CN Live! last month. “If he’s not permitted to rely on the First Amendment because of his status as a foreign national, he’ll thereby be prejudiced, potentially very greatly prejudiced by reason of his nationality.”
Assange contends that if he’s given First Amendment rights, “the prosecution will be stopped,” Cohn said. “The First Amendment is therefore of central importance to his defense.”
Cohn added: ‘If he has the right to free expression and freedom of speech, then what he did, what he’s accused of doing, would not violate the law.”
[See: 1st Amendment Authorized Assange’s Possession of Classified Data]
Though allowing First Amendment rights at trial would be ultimately a judge’s decision, and not the executive branch’s, Assistant U.S. Attorney Gordon Kromberg, who is prosecuting Assange, has not only not indicated that he wouldn’t file a motion against it in court, but has said explicitly that non-U.S. citizens do not have First Amendment rights in the U.S. for acts committed abroad.
A date has not yet been set for Assange’s appeal to begin.
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Joe Lauria is editor-in-chief of Consortium News and a former U.N. correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, Boston Globe, and other newspapers, including The Montreal Gazette, the London Daily Mail and The Star of Johannesburg. He was an investigative reporter for the Sunday Times of London, a financial reporter for Bloomberg News and began his professional work as a 19-year old stringer for The New York Times. He is the author of two books, A Political Odyssey, with Sen. Mike Gravel, foreword by Daniel Ellsberg; and How I Lost By Hillary Clinton, foreword by Julian Assange. He can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter @unjoe
“He gets to stay in prison another year or more, Joe Biden doesn’t have to worry about a journalist showing up in chains in Alexandria, VA during a presidential campaign and of course Assange could lose his appeal and arrive in the U.S. at a more opportune time for Biden. ”
No comment needed.
“Follow the river and find the sea,” i.e., “Kudos to JOE LAURIA for keeping the ROBERT PARRY journalism tradition herein alit with smooth vigor.” Thom Williams aka EA
AND, “A Tree Blossoms With Rain,”
……….“We must never lose sight of our beliefs and principles. And this little victory against the evil-doers shows there is a way if we keep on pushing and we are many. Little drops of water make a mighty ocean. FREE THE INNOCENT,” Valerie
Concluding, “Virtue Is Power!!!”
TY, Thom Williams (EA), Valerie, Joe Lauria, CN, et al., “Keep It Lit!
I suppose this has already been pointed out at some point(s), but the irony and/or perhaps ‘double entendre’, is that Julian Assange, this time as a ‘legal martyr’, rather than through Wikileaks, continues to make his case against State governments/their operations. The longer this goes on, the more it erodes State ‘legitimacy’ (so to speak), as if it ever fundamentally had it.
Of course we anarchists already know about the State and its fundamental corruptions and unworkabilities. We’re just waiting for the rest of our species to wake up & catch up.
IMHO the ICC prosecutor’s decision is as much optics and b….s…. as meat and potatoes. Unlike the ICJ, the prosecutor is corrupt, and the ICC a corrupted and ideological forum – and their history has proven it out.
This decision may sound noble, but it alleges and attributes to Hamas atrocities already proven to be false, and fails to acknowledge what some of our best ex-intelligence analysts know and have articulated- namely that the Hamas operation was a carefully planned and executed military operation against an occupying power, and as such would be protected by international law and the law of war.
Moreover, one of the Hamas officials against whom the prosecutor is seeking an indictment was Hamas’ chief negotiator for the ceasefire agreement rejected by Israel. It seems not unlike one or more of those prior little ‘haircuts’ when Hamas negotiators were killed in airstrikes.
Incroyable!
So, Assange gets to appeal yet again, to all the King’s servants and all the King’s men (and other genders), to get them to reconsider the fact that they ruled that the King is always right and will always be right in the fine tradition of His Majesty’s Justice and in service to His Majesty.
Americans rejected this centuries ago. Or at least I thought they did? But apparently, Americans still believe in the King’s servants in the King’s wigs dispensing the King’s justice. All of this in a strange American belief that of course holds on faith the fact that Kings are always wise and just and never just old fools with a crown and fancy robe.
Do you people seriously expect this to change anything?
As many commentators has written. Julian is still in torture chamber called Belmarsh prison and will be to the end of his life. These victories are not victories, they are part of the game. This process is similar to Palestine case as the Israels apartheid policy continued decades. We need something like the october 8 to change the rules of the game.
The UK and US are so disgusting states.
Thanks to all, family and friends of Julian, for your most amazing persistence in the face of the odious and omnipresent purview of the Deep State over what I must describe as said state’s most prized possession, their ultimate trophy in the beatdown of “a free press.”
Now for God’s sake, for all that is to be felt and acknowledged as the existence of our collective humanity, release this prisoner!
Now! Depriving him of fresh air and much needed vitamin D from sunshine for ones immune system health is barbaric.
His “crime,” yet to be legally, let alone honestly deconstructed [in court] under international law, nor within the codification of the US Constitution and /or the Bill of Rights, demands “Innocent until PROVEN guilty!”
This is not the case, but it certainly describes the twisted logic of the U.S. and its client-agent the UK, to be of unreasonably, grossly and egregiously keeping him locked up and away as an object lesson in denying the First Amendment in the U.S. and in the denial of the. . .
Habeas Corpus Act 1679
United Kingdom law
The Habeas Corpus Act 1679 is an Act of Parliament in England during the reign of King Charles II. It was passed by what became known as the Habeas Corpus Parliament to define and strengthen the ancient prerogative writ of habeas corpus, which required a court to examine the lawfulness of a prisoner’s detention and thus prevent unlawful or arbitrary imprisonment.
. . . in the United Kingdom.
The treatment of this man relative to General Augusto Pinochet after he was arrested and charged for his own mass-murdering crimes is a stark object lesson in how he was allowed such freedoms versus to how Julian has been held in the dankness of Belmarsh for the actual OPPOSITE of Pinochet’s crimes! Let alone Julian’s years of forced-by-the-State self-imprisonment in the Ecuadorean embassy.
Torture has now become a benchmark of the 21st century. This from the countries which once defined freedom and law as we have only recently lost it—after coming out of the age of Divine Rights of Kings. (Monarchy) Ours is a mere blip in the actual time of organized civilization as we behold it. And the differences in how we beheld it only a few short decades ago—where and when Julian’s travesty would not have been allowed to thusly as we know it to proceed.
Now much of what we knew seems but to be a supra law, an inevitable outcome of a growing tyranny if allowed to further metastasize and be chewed up in this neo-age of Technocracy—a system abetted by a militaristic and totalitarian component necessary to the edification and processes of this ‘Organization.’ And it has gained ground far too rapidly. It has grown up like a forest surrounding our former perceptions of liberty, it is no longer granted that we should “see so far.”
This is the larger ramification of Julian’s case—one so few seem to acknowledge as our previous freedoms are so quietly sucked away, whether deep underground or into the actual vacuum beyond our sustaining atmosphere.
Free this man, this good man whose goals are those of altruism—for Peace. Enough—and too much already—of this torture and slow death sentence which someone (or some thing?) has imposed. A wretched entity, whichever.
Free Julian Assange. At least let him out on bail. He’s surely no flight risk anymore. And while doing so—if indeed we still live under a rule of just and equitable law, free his family too from this same torture that has been so wickedly imposed on them as well.
David Otness: Beautifully said and very true, and could be “carved in stone” for posterity to read when another honest, truth-telling person like Julian Assange, a world-hero, is villified and imprisoned as Julian Assange is as I write.
And special thanks to the honorable journalist and editor, Joe Lauria, for his timely reporting from the “front lines” on Julian’s current status with the British court system and the important job he is doing on consortium news for those of us concerned about humanity.
The Western ruling class are gangsters. Julian exposed their crimes. The CIA is especially pissed about Vault 7 which exposed Us government domestic spying. They will keep Julian in jail by any means. He should by rights, be released while his appeal plays out. But those with the bribe money demand their pound of flesh. When will we rise up and rid humanity of these parasites?
“Because it is an executive branch decision, the U.S. was able to assure the British government that it would not seek the death penalty, and Assange’s lawyers on Monday said they did not contest that.”
I don’t understand this sentence (in particular the strength/meaning of the word “assure”). The US’ executive branch can change every four years, including President, Attorney General, etc., and they don’t even have to follow the law. Congress will ignore their lawbreaking if the executive and legislative branches are of the same one of the two corrupt parties, and often even if its the opposing party.
And obviously once Assange is on US ground the UK won’t invade a jail to rescue him after the DOJ changes their mind and seeks the death penalty. The only real assurance would be a Constitutional Amendment abolishing the DP, and even that could later be overturned. I must be missing something here. Is this more of a gentleman’s agreement? Or a historical trust–where that assurance has been given in prior extraditions and hasn’t been broken?
I know I don’t need to belabor this here, since the fine people who read CN understand this, but the First Amendment guaranteeing freedom of the press is a restriction on the powers of the government, not a right granted to the people. The right is assumed to exist, and is also recognized by the Tenth Amendment, it’s just that the First Amendment makes the restriction on the government explicit. The citizenship of anyone practicing journalism or free speech matters not. And should Assange end up in the American courts, I can only hope that one person on the jury understands that distinction. Myself, I would hang the jury at first opportunity and force a mistrial.
“In another sense, it was a victory for the supremacy of European law when it comes to free speech.”
Really? From where I’m standing, it looked like a British court using the US 1st Amendment to skewer a corrupt US legal proceeding. As such, it is an example of the superiority of the US Constitution over any European offerings – had the situation been reversed, where would the Americans have found the guarantee of free speech in the (unwritten!) “British Constitution” with which to skewer a similarly corrupt extradition request?
A challenge in UK is behavior of US three-letter agency, which so often carries through on its threats. It would not do for the prisoner to be Lee Harvey Oswalded or Jack Rubied upon leaving the dungeon.
What is aggravating Assange did not tell us anything we did not know or lest strongly suspect. We have known our communications were being hacked.
The who might be a bit questionable, we know we were being spied, listened to, mail opened, etc. We were not surprised.
Evidence is extremely important in shaping public opinion on this subject and pushing back on propaganda. As long as suspicions rely on unconfirmed theories and circumstantial evidence, the opaque agencies can rely on plausible deniability, deflection, aspersions, innuendo, etc. to keep fence-sitters from engaging with the subject. It’s the whistleblowers and leakers with hard evidence that bring the public essential credibility in exposing the behavior of these agencies.
Thank goodness for small victories. They seem to be the ones that exist. Sadly, though, it seems altogether too comfortable for the American government to charge the British with holding Assange indefinitely under the pretense of having a case to try.
It might be better for the politicians who are actively shutting down public discourse in the United States to have Assange imprisoned and punished without the need for what could become an even more public farce in the States–assuming that a trial of any sort would even take place.
So, Biden avoids the political morass of an untimely Assange arrival, and the UK establishment is allowed to slap on another hoary old veneer of so-called justice to a hallowed hall, while Assange, himself, remains imprisoned, exactly where both the US/UK want him, anyway. Nonetheless, an excellent victory, as originally the US certainly wanted their man locked away for life in a 24/7 freezing steel shoebox tortured by glaring white light and looping thrasher rock. Godspeed to Assange and team’s full appeal by full throated airing of the true crimes, here.
Yah, it’s like listening to this: hxxps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v99HbgVHD5Y
and hoping
The Byrds
“The Assange case could lead to a constitutional challenge.” JOE LAURIA, called it!!! 5.18.24
…… “The First Amendment is at the core of the unconstitutionality of the Espionage Act. The Assange case could lead to a constitutional challenge. The imprisoned publisher is also charged with conspiracy to commit computer intrusion.” JOE LAURIA @ hxxps://consortiumnews.com/2024/05/18/assanges-hearing-is-monday-help-us-cover-it/
MEMO TO: The USG’S POTUS, Biden-Harris, Board of Executioners, War Chiefs, U$ Congress
FM: “The Right Side of History”
RE: “Justice For Julian Assange”
“Extreme times call for extreme measures.” The competition, “TRUTH,” is f/fierce. Are you up for the “constitutional challenge,” FREE, JULIAN ASSANGE???
….. “Let’s Get Ready To Rumble,” i.e., JULIAN ASSANGE “Wins Right to APPEAL on 1st Amendment Issue!!!” 5.20.24
Basically, Times Up! IMO, the USG’s POTUS, Bd of Executioners, War Chiefs, US Congress, Donor Class (the 1%) “GOTS” to “Come Clean!” ………. Own it! Do It! Done – “FREE, Julian Assange!!!”
I, sooo thought, Mossop’s f.u.b.a.r., judgment, in “$atan (AUKUS) v. McBride” removed the roadblock to extradition. Au contraire, the “Royal Courts’ of Justice,” removed the roadblock to Julian’s path to freedom that, for 15+ years, is jam f/packed w/thorns! IMO, the “Royal Courts’ of Justice,” opened up “Pandora’s Box;” and, “out swarmed all the troubles” of the USG’s POTUS, Bd of Executioners, War Chiefs; &, U$ Congress!!!
…… “Only Hope was left in the box, stuck under the lid,” JULIAN ASSANGE “Wins Right to APPEAL on 1st Amendment Issue!!!” 5.20.24
Onward & Upwards! Julian Assange & every other investigative journalist, publisher, whistleblower taking bullet after bullet after bullet; year after year after year, for the Divided $tates of Corporate America’s USPresidents’ 40-46 war crimes & crimes against humanity, once, AGAIN, will meet the “Constitutional Challenge.” Assange’s, their, “LIFE”depends on it; &, everything is life.
“AND, it could all end if the USG, et al., chose to intervene,” REPENT!” “Do the right thing,” FREE, JULIAN ASSANGE,” Today! End Julian Assange’s f.u.b.a.r., process of “Jumping through Hoops,” for FREEDOM!
Fuhgeddabout It. NO More f/Hoops to Jump Through. “Unchain Assange’s heart & soul. SET Julian Assange FREE!
TY, CN, et al., “Keep It Lit!”
“The Assange case could lead to a constitutional challenge”
Well i guess Biden finds it a challenge every day with his “daily constitutional”.
And with your oblique reference to that wonderful song, here’s a live version:
XXXX://m.youtube.com/watch?v=x4B4L60DIG8&pp=ygUbam9lIGNvY2tlciB1bmNoYWluIG15IGhlYXJ0
FREE JULIAN ASSANGE
In f/deed LeoSun!!! Kudos to JOE LAURIA for keeping the ROBERT PARRY journalism tradition herein alit with smooth vigor. Your gonzo celebration of this long awaited ‘good news day’ in the JULIAN ASSANGE saga is what internet comments and discussions can aspire to upon the occasion of choosing informed interest in-place-of petulant f/psychobabble.
Surely there is growing public attention as the political and criminal nature of this persecution is continually exposed, and with this growth there is a sense of hope for Julian and journalism to prevail finally. I just learned that “for the public good” is not allowed by the Espionage Act, and if this is so, which seems born of hysteria back then in a 100 year old piece of legislation, entirely leaves out the possibility of criminal government behavior. Yet in the century since we have seen continual indications of government misbehavior. This is exactly what Julian has uncovered, and which the other publications implicated in this case were quick to reveal also, and that includes persecution of himself personally. This then is a major issue as we see the political machinations continue, which at base have cover-up as their objective. Exposure, more exposure, and growing resistance, as with what is happening generally across the globe at this time in several key areas of change, is a hope in this moment. Thank you, all you experts presented here, who are following this case.
…”hetro, w/o a doubt, you are 100%, on point!!!”
…… Concluding, “[The Whistleblowers] actually [ARE] “our” North Star,” i.e.,
“The North Star always points toward home and thusly [serves] as a reminder that home [is] never too far away.” The “Whistleblowers” aka Publishers, Investigative Journalists, *“UN’s Special Rapporteur on Torture & Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment,” moral compass “is reflected in the decisions, each made & actions taken!”
………… * “The Trial of Julian Assange: A story of persecution,” By John Jiggens
[NILS MELZER] “reminds us that when telling the truth becomes a crime, we will all be living in a tyranny.”“We are on the edge of that precipice now. The incarceration of Julian Assange for revealing war crimes is the most crucial judicial scandal of this century.” Johnny Jiggens
……. “Even in the darkest room, the light of a single candle is enough to enable everyone to see. Julian Assange has lit such a candle with his work. He has exposed war crimes, abuse and corruption that has been concealed behind a curtain of secrecy. It was only a brief glimpse behind the curtain, but sometimes one glimpse is enough to change our whole world view. We now know that this curtain of secrecy exists and that a parallel world of dirty secrets lies behind it.” NILS MELZER, UN’s Special Rapporteur on Torture & Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.
“Keep It Lit!”
Thank you for this comment and encouragement. The outrage of watching these hideous events, and victims, would tend to make us very ill, and cynical, that relatively few psychotics will ever be overcome–or significant change. But there are hints of massive change coming in developments in Africa and the Global South, polling that suggests what ordinary human beings think of sadists and torturers, and an awakening to criminal behavior that is even creeping into the MSM. The ICJ and ICC actions have our cynical response, yes, but even these official bodies are drawing attention, doing the arousing, stirring the anger and revulsion. “Even in the darkest room the light of a single candle is enough to enable everyone to see.” Yes. The moral compass is still capable and I believe the increasing transparency and flagrant, careless, self-dominating behavior of what we’re seeing in government today is backfiring and causing massive reconsidering. I sense this is the case versus all the pessimism. Your good cheer is very welcome!
”The moral compass is still capable and I believe the increasing transparency and flagrant, careless, self-dominating behavior of what we’re seeing in government today is backfiring and causing massive reconsidering.” (hetro)
…..YES!!! “If you cannot be a lighthouse, be a candle.”
AND, “LIKEWISE, hetro,” as well as Valerie’s, Thomas’ (EA’s), CN’s spirit, vibe, “your good cheer” (moral support), is sincerely appreciated. “Solidarity, LIVES!!! TY.
….. Concluding, “Virtue is better than wealth; and, Reason is wealth!!!” Keep It Lit! Ciao
At least let him out with his family while all this delay continues . Cruelty even by Brutish (sic) justice surely has some limits.
Just what I was thinking. The poor man is suffering – very badly, and yet the British justice system still seems totally devoid of compassion.
John Moffett: Exactly!
? ? ? BRAVO!!!
Thank You Joe
Is the delay in deciding extradition to buy Biden time to win the election? What are the motives to allow this appeal? The UK has been even worse (if possible) than the US as to some foreign policies. Are the high courts decisions as political as ours? Are our “leaders” hoping Assange dies in Belmarsh so they will not have to go forward with a mockery of a trial while not offending the IC?
I have always presumed that the US government would be very happy for Assange to die in prison, because as far as they are concerned the problem would go away. By dragging this out for so long, all they have to do is wait.
If it is not obvious by now, the one horrifyingly simple fact is: not one human being is immortal.
The ruthless, erstwhile, unilateral hegemons objective has not changed one iota.
The case against Julian Assange is: his morality against a states immorality.
The farther this decaying state is backed into a corner, the more viciously it will act.
This is precisely the conduct the genocidal state of Israel has been following against non-Jewish Arab-Palestine, for the previous 76-plus years: delay, delay, delay…..
As hard as Nazi Germany tried to eliminate Europe’s Jewish populace, it failed!
So too is ‘Camp Israhell’ failing to exterminate the entire Palestinian population who are not of the Judaic faith.
It has proven, time and again, throughout history that millions of people defying rapacious killers cannot all be murdered.
The ultra Zionist, Jewish theocracy, thinks otherwise. The odds are not in their favor.
Sickeningly, in the case of this one humane being, Julian Assange, the odds are much, much shorter, that he will outlast the states vindictiveness .
“Lipstick on a pig”
Stella, you are one courageous woman enduring
with such patience the word: “We know that we are of God,
and the whole world is in the power of the evil one” (1 Jn.5.19).
Brilliant. Just brilliant. I cried when i read this.
FREE JULIAN ASSANGE
FREE PALESTINE
Assange is still imprisoned and his appeal has no guarantee of success.
AND, VALERIE, you were NOT alone! “I,” too, “cried when i read this.” It’s absolutely overwhelming, i.e.,
*“One, for Sorrow. Two, for Joy. Three, for Girls. Four, for boys. Five, for Silver. Six, for Gold. Seven, for the Secrets,” EVERYBODY, knows!
Solidarity, “LIVES!” Ya called it, “ Brilliant. Just brilliant.” “FREE JULIAN ASSANGE. FREE PALESTINE.” I, second, all those emotions.” TY, Valerie. Onward & Upwards.
* Counting Crows
We must never lose sight of our beliefs and principles. And this little victory against the evil-doers shows there is a way if we keep on pushing and we are many. Little drops of water make a mighty ocean.
FREE THE INNOCENT
It seems like the UK is stalling to keep Julian in prison indefinitely. As long as the endless appeals continue, he is in prison. What they need to do is release him immediately, not continue this endless appeals process.
Spot on. Every day Julian has spent in prison, every day he continues to spend in prison, is an ongoing miscarriage of justice and shows just how corrupt the US and its ally the UK are.
Exactly. Release Julian so he can appeal. Keeping him locked up without any proof for 12 years is the continuing penalty.
He is not only in prison but he is NOT allowed to speak. How can this be the law? It is a contuation of his detention without his ability to speak or do his work.
The UK continues the tradition set by the Star Chamber trials, and the US has its corollary in the FISA trials. Both are horrendously in violation of basic human rights, effectively disappearing people without any hope of recourse.
That is, unfortunately, correct. I wouldn’t be surprised if the US explicitly told those UK judges to go ahead and grant Julian his appeal. It keeps Assange locked up for a few more months, and gives people false hope. Bastards!
Good point. All the delays keep Julian permanently locked up. The UK’s political prisoner. Locked up for ever for committing no crime.
Absolutely! No one on the UK high court has one ounce of courage or any understanding of fairness or justice, but is only interested in kowtowing to the great imperial power of Biden and the Great OZ of the United States. What a bunch of gutless wonders they all are! Assange should have been released long ago for the absence of any credible case against him by the U.S., and should at least be allowed to go free with all charges dropped. Failing that, his time served has provided far more than the pound of flesh the U.S. seeks to obtain from its ridiculous, petty, and vengeful persecution of a journalist for revealing some of its wrongdoings on an international stage.