{"id":146004,"date":"2019-10-28T12:01:05","date_gmt":"2019-10-28T12:01:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=146004"},"modified":"2019-11-04T09:36:28","modified_gmt":"2019-11-04T09:36:28","slug":"uk-judge-rejects-delay-in-assange-extradition-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2019\/10\/uk-judge-rejects-delay-in-assange-extradition-case\/","title":{"rendered":"UK Judge Rejects Delay in Assange Extradition Case"},"content":{"rendered":"

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22 Oct 2019 – <\/em>Imprisoned WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange appeared at Westminster Magistrates Court in London yesterday\u2014only his third public appearance since UK police seized him from the Ecuadorian embassy on April 11 and imprisoned him in the maximum-security Belmarsh Prison.<\/p>\n

Assange, whose exposure of US war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan garnered worldwide attention and multiple journalism awards in Australia, the United States, Europe and Latin America, arrived at court in a Serco prison van.<\/p>\n

Standing in the dock\u2014a room enclosed by reinforced glass panels\u2014Assange mentally paused and appeared to stumble as Judge Vanessa Baraitser asked him to state his name and date of birth.<\/p>\n

Baraitser\u2019s vindictiveness towards Assange was clear from the first moments of the hour-and-a-half-long case management hearing. She told Assange\u2019s supporters watching silently in the public gallery that \u201cthose causing a disturbance \u2026 will be asked to leave.\u201d WikiLeaks\u2019 editor and veteran journalist Kristinn Hrafnsson, investigative journalist John Pilger and former Mayor of London Ken Livingstone were among those seated.<\/p>\n

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Kristinn Hrafnsson (left) speaking alongside John Pilger after the hearing<\/p><\/div>\n

James Lewis QC appeared on behalf of the US Department of Justice, stating, \u201cMr Assange is wanted by the United States government\u201d for \u201cspying\u201d and \u201caiding and abetting Chelsea Manning\u201d in relation to publication of US classified documents relating to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and of US State Department cables. Assange was \u201cnot a journalist,\u201d Lewis asserted. His actions were \u201ccriminal in both the US and UK,\u201d he claimed, citing the UK\u2019s Official Secrets Act.<\/p>\n

Mark Summers QC appeared on behalf of Assange and requested the extradition case against his client be dismissed. The 2003 UK\/US extradition treaty expressly provided that \u201cextradition shall not be granted if the offence for which extradition is requested is a political offence.\u201d Summers said the political motivations of his client \u201care well known.\u201d<\/p>\n

Summers continued that the US government\u2019s moves against Assange and former US Army private Chelsea Manning since 2010 were \u201cpart of an avowed war on whistleblowers to include investigative journalists and publishers.\u201d Political pressure had been brought to bear by the US state on Ecuador and on Manning, who is now in jail for refusing to testify against Assange. WikiLeaks had been described as a \u201chostile non-state intelligence agency\u201d and the case had been \u201creinvigorated\u201d by the Trump administration. The attack on journalists was \u201cunprecedented.\u201d<\/p>\n

Summers requested that Baraitser grant a three-month delay to the extradition hearing scheduled for February 25. He pointed to \u201cextraordinary\u201d revelations of illegal US interference against Assange\u2019s legal rights. Legal action taken by Assange against a Spanish security company had exposed the US \u201cactively intruding on privileged discussions\u201d between Assange and his lawyers at the Ecuadorian embassy.<\/p>\n

The US state was involved in the illegal theft of information from telephones and computers, \u201chooded men breaking into offices\u201d and \u201cplans to kidnap and harm Mr Assange.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be blunt, we need more time,\u201d he told the court. The \u201cenormity\u201d of the issues in the case required \u201cevidence gathering that would test most lawyers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Summers explained that a delay was also needed due to conditions facing Assange at Belmarsh Prison. His client had no access to information, no phone contact with his US legal team and mail restrictions meant he had only received court documents from his lawyers one week before today\u2019s hearing.<\/p>\n

Responding on behalf of the US government, Lewis told Baraitser, \u201cYou shouldn\u2019t be beguiled into accepting\u201d the three-month delay argued by Assange\u2019s lawyers. \u201cIt\u2019s just a guesstimate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Summers appealed to Baraitser that the February date for a full extradition hearing \u201cisn\u2019t sustainable.\u201d He repeatedly stated that Assange\u2019s right to a fair and equitable trial was being placed in jeopardy.<\/p>\n

Baraitser was unmoved, stating: \u201cMy intention is to adopt the timetable suggested by Mr Lewis.\u201d While granting to the defence a two-month extension to gather further evidence, she ruled the full extradition hearing would proceed on February 25.<\/p>\n

In a final vindictive move, Baraitser declared that next year\u2019s week-long extradition hearing would take place at Belmarsh Magistrates Court near Belmarsh Prison. There were audible gasps in the public gallery at Baraitser\u2019s announcement. The venue near Belmarsh has a \u201cpublic gallery\u201d of just five seats, all but denying public scrutiny and allowing a biased media to selectively report and spread disinformation and lies.<\/p>\n

Summers immediately objected to Baraitser\u2019s choice of venue. Not only was the court difficult to reach\u2014adding to an already impossible schedule and workload for the legal team\u2014its facilities were inferior to those at Westminster and it even lacked conference rooms that would be vital for confidential legal discussions. His concerns were dismissed.<\/p>\n

As the hearing drew to an end, Baraitser to turned to Assange and asked him to rise.<\/p>\n

\u201cDo you understand what has happened here today?\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Assange, who has endured months of solitary confinement and been cut off from daily access to outside information, replied after a long pause:<\/p>\n

\u201cDo I understand? Not really.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cIs there anything else you would like to say?\u201d<\/em> Baraitser asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t understand how this is equitable.\u201d <\/em>Assange replied, speaking softly and inaudibly at times. \u201cThis superpower had 10 years to prepare for this case. I can\u2019t remember anything. I can\u2019t access any of my written work. It\u2019s very difficult to do anything with such limited resources against a superpower intent on [inaudible]\u2026 They have an unfair advantage dealing with documents. They [know] the interior of my life with my psychologist. They steal my children\u2019s DNA. This is not equitable what is happening here.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t think properly,\u201d <\/em>he concluded, fighting back tears and raising both hands to his head. “The conditions of your detainment are not the subject of this court,” Baraitser replied.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

These were the final words spoken before Assange was led from the dock, out of view of his supporters in the public gallery.<\/p>\n

Speaking after the hearing, WikiLeaks editor-in-chief Kristinn Hrafnsson said:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe case should be thrown out immediately. Not only is it illegal on the face of the treaty, the US has conducted illegal operations against Assange and his lawyers which are the subject of a major investigation in Spain.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Outside the court, Hrafnsson and Pilger addressed around 200 demonstrators who had made their presence felt throughout the morning. The crowd included dozens of Yellow Vests who had travelled overnight by coach from France.<\/p>\n

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Some of the around 100 Yellow Vest protesters from France who attended in support of Assange<\/p><\/div>\n

Pilger told demonstrators:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe whole thing is a grotesque absurdity. There is an extradition law between this country and the United States. It states specifically that someone cannot be extradited if the offences are political\u2026 It is not a bit of agitprop, it is not an opinion, they <\/em>are political. All but one charge is based on the 1917 Espionage Act, which was used to jail conscientious objectors during the First World War in the United States.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Pilger concluded:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe source of this is a rogue state\u2014a state that ignores its own laws and international laws and the laws of this country.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Go to Original \u2013 wsws.org<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

22 Oct 2019 – Pilger told demonstrators: \u201cThe whole thing is a grotesque absurdity. There is an extradition law between this country and the United States. It states specifically that someone cannot be extradited if the offences are political\u2026 It is not a bit of agitprop, it is not an opinion, they ARE political. All but one charge is based on the 1917 Espionage Act, which was used to jail conscientious objectors during the First World War in the United States.\u201dPilger concluded: \u201cThe source of this is a rogue state\u2014a state that ignores its own laws and international laws and the laws of this country.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":146005,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[225,62,51,139,60],"tags":[229,910,120,276,942,487,378,651,234,291,91,444,287,985,380,1109,911,454,572,249,639,292,70,126,118,172,921,113,75],"class_list":["post-146004","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-spotlight","category-media","category-europe","category-justice","category-whistleblowing-surveillance","tag-activism","tag-big-brother","tag-conflict","tag-democracy","tag-ecuador","tag-human-rights","tag-journalism","tag-justice","tag-media","tag-military","tag-nato","tag-nonviolence","tag-power","tag-social-justice","tag-solutions","tag-spying","tag-surveillance","tag-sweden","tag-torture","tag-trump","tag-uk","tag-un","tag-usa","tag-violence","tag-war","tag-west","tag-whistleblowing","tag-wikileaks","tag-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146004","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=146004"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146004\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/146005"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=146004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=146004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=146004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}