One up for Assange!

On Monday WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange won a victory in his ongoing battle against extradition from the United Kingdom to the United States, after the High Court in London granted him permission to appeal.
Permission to appeal was to be granted only if the American government was unable to provide the court with suitable assurances that Assange can rely on the First Amendment (free speech) for protection.
The Americans had to prove that Assange, who is Australian, will not be prejudiced at trial due to his nationality, and will be afforded the same protections as an American citizen.
The American side also had to provide assurance that Assange would not be sentenced to death if convicted.
Assange's legal team criticised the assurances provided by the US government at the hearing, arguing that "based on the principle of the separation of powers, the US court can and will apply U.S. law, whatever the executive may say or do”.
Most of the assurances were "blatantly inadequate," said Edward Fitzgerald KC, representing Assange. However, the American assurance on the death penalty was accepted by Assange's legal team.
The lawyer said in written submissions that while the assurance on the death penalty was "an unambiguous executive promise," the other assurances do not give "any reliable promise as to future action".
Assange supporters cheered at the news of the court's ruling. He was not in court on Monday for health reasons, but those present included his wife Stella.
"The judges reached the right decision... as a family we are relieved, but how long can this go on? The United States should read the situation and drop this case now. Now is the moment to do it. Just abandon the shameful attack on journalists, on the press and on the public," Stella told supporters outside the High Court. According to Assange's legal team, it could be months before the new appeal is heard.
The latest move came after the High Court deferred a decision in March on whether Assange could take his case to another appeal hearing.
Assange, 52, is wanted by the Americans for allegedly disclosing national defence information following WikiLeaks' publication of hundreds of thousands of leaked military documents relating to the Afghanistan and Iraq wars a decade ago. These included video footage of an Apache helicopter gunship mowing down journalists and children in the streets of Baghdad in 2007.
Assange has been held in London's high-security Belmarsh Prison since 2019. The UK approved his extradition to the USA in 2022, after a judge had initially blocked it due to concerns over his mental health. Assange and his lawyers have subsequently appealed.
Xinhua

Fighting for Assange!

Corbyn joins the human chain

by New Worker correspondent

Jeremy Corbyn joined protesters in Westminster last weekend to demonstrate against the extradition of Julian Assange. The former Labour leader joined left-wing comedian Russell Brand, retired union leader Len McCluskey and thousands of other Assange supporters to form a human chain outside Parliament that stretched from its perimeter railings and across Westminster Bridge to the other side of the River Thames.
    Claudia Webbe, the independent MP for Leicester East who was expelled from the Labour Party following a conviction for harassment last year, also took part in the London protest that was part of a day of international demonstrations in solidarity with the WiKiLeaks campaigner.
    “I would say to MPs – actually of any party – you’re there to represent democracy and rights,” she said, “That’s what you sign up for… if Julian Assange is extradited, it will set forth fear among other journalists of doing anything to expose truth”.
    Assange, who is currently being held at London’s high-security Belmarsh Prison, will face espionage charges if he is sent to face trial in America. High Court has ruled that Assange can be extradited to the United States to face a life-time in jail for exposing American war-crimes in Iraq and other parts of the world The WikiLeaks founder is accused of publishing information detailing crimes committed by the US government in the Guantánamo Bay concentration camp, Iraq and Afghanistan.
    Assange’s wife Stella said the British government should speak to the US authorities to stop the extradition attempts. “It’s already gone on for three and a half years. It is a stain on the United Kingdom and is a stain on the Biden administration,” she said.
    She also voiced her fears for the jailed WikiLeaks founder’s health after he tested positive for Covid-19.
    "He tested positive for Covid on Saturday, the same day thousands of people came out onto the streets to support him," Stella said concerned that the prison authorities had only given her husband some paracetamol for his symptoms.
    "I am obviously worried about him and the next few days will be crucial for his general health. He is now locked in his cell for 24 hours a day," Stella stressed.
    In the US, supporters of the Australian-born activist gathered outside the Justice Department to call on the federal government to drop its extradition bid. The protesters said they hope Assange never steps foot on US soil as he would not be treated fairly by the judicial system.
    “Julian wasn’t trying to help dictatorships, he was trying to stop the United States from becoming one! And that’s why they want him in jail, and that’s why it’s crucial that we fight to set Julian free,” 2020 Libertarian Vice Presidential candidate Spike Cohen said at the rally.
    Human trafficking survivor Eliza Bleu urged the “global elites, the ruling class” and employees of the CIA and FBI to “be a hero, quit your job and become a whistleblower.”
    “If it’s a choice between free speech and the United States government, trust and know, one’s gotta go! If one has to go, it ain’t gonna be free speech!” she said, adding that she is so passionate about freedom because she knows what it is like to lose it.

Free Assange!

By New Worker correspondent

Over a hundred doctors and two Australian MPs are calling for the release of Julian Assange, who is being held in London’s Belmarsh prison while awaiting hearings that could lead to his extradition to the United States where he faces life imprisonment on bogus espionage charges.

            The WikiLeaks founder, an Australian citizen living in Sweden, came to Britain in 2010 following rape allegations that he strenuously denied. Assange was avoiding an arrest that he feared would lead to his deportation to the USA, where he faces charges following WikiLeaks exposure of US war crimes in Iraq. In 2012 the then progressive government of Ecuador offered him asylum and Assange took refuge in their embassy in London when the British government moved to send him to America. But Assange was denied free passage to leave the country.

Seven years later reactionary forces in the pay of US imperialism seized power in Ecuador. Assange was handed over to the police in exchange for around $4.2 billion worth of IMF loans and aid.

            In May 2019 UN torture expert Nils Melzer, along with two other medical experts who specialise in assessing torture victims, concluded that the WikiLeaks founder exhibited symptoms of "psychological torture".

Last November over 60 doctors wrote to the Home Secretary to express their serious concerns about the physical and mental health of Julian Assange. They requested that Assange be transferred from Belmarsh prison to a university teaching hospital for medical assessment and treatment. Faced with evidence of untreated and ongoing torture, they also questioned Assange's fitness to participate in US extradition proceedings.

Having received no substantive response from the Johnson government 117 physicians and psychologists from all round the world including the original protesters, have written to the Lancet, Britain’s leading medical journal, demanding an “end to the psychological torture” of Julian Assange.

    “Since doctors first began assessing Mr. Assange in the Ecuadorian Embassy in 2015, expert medical opinion and doctors’ urgent recommendations have been consistently ignored,” the letter, organised by a group of medical professionals known as Doctors for Assange and published on 17^th  February, says.

The medical experts “condemn the torture of Assange” and the continued denial “of his fundamental right” to appropriate healthcare.

    “This politicisation of foundational medical principles is of grave concern to us, as it carries implications beyond the case of Julian Assange. Abuse by politically motivated medical neglect sets a dangerous precedent, ultimately undermining our profession’s impartiality, commitment to health for all, and obligation to do no harm”, the letter reads.

Meanwhile two visiting Australian MPs have also condemned the imprisonment of the prominent Australian journalist. They told a press conference in London that the continued detention and prosecution of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange was an “affront” to democracy, as well as freedom of the press and speech.

Australian independent MP Andrew Wilkie and the National Party’s George Christensen landed in London on Sunday to speak at a Foreign Press Association meeting on a platform with Wikileaks editor-in-chief Kristinn Hrafnsson and Jennifer Robinson, lawyer for Assange’s legal team.

Andrew Wilkie, a former Australian army intelligence analyst who resigned over Australia’s role in the invasion of Iraq in 2003, said that there was a “broad range of views” amongst officials about the detained journalist.

Numerous “allegations, innuendos, stories and disinformation”, had been spread over many years by the media and various officials, he added.

   WikiLeaks disclosed information about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as the conditions in the American Guantanamo Bay prison camp Wilkie said.

Wikileaks was simply “releasing information about those matters in the public interest …as a journalist”, the Independent Australian MP told the press, adding that his detention at Belmarsh prison and potential extradition to the US revealed the “sharp contrast what the injustice is”.

The other Australian MP, George Christensen from the conservative National Party, discussed a myth that “need to be busted” regarding Assange, namely that the publisher was “not a journalist”.

Christensen said: "I think he is. Australians think he is. He’s won an award. But it doesn’t really matter whether he’s a blogger, a journalist, or a publisher. The issue is free speech and the right to publish".