Julian Assange’s defense worked on Tuesday to convince British justice to grant him a last appeal against his extradition to the United States, which accuses him of espionage, in the absence of the founder of Wikileaks, who is reportedly suffering. .
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The first of two days of hearings was held at the High Court in London without the 52-year-old Australian, who “is not feeling well”, said his lawyer Edward Fitzgerald.
As the hearing approached, his supporters warned of the risks weighing on the health and even the life of Julian Assange, prosecuted for a massive leak of documents and imprisoned for 12 years in the United Kingdom – seven years a refugee in the Ecuadorian embassy, then detained for five years in the high security Belmarsh prison in London – in a case erected as a symbol of the threats weighing on press freedom.
AFP
Two judges are called upon to rule on whether or not to grant Julian Assange the right to appeal his extradition to the United States, accepted in June 2022 by the British government. If they refuse, his relatives fear that he will be quickly handed over to the United States, putting his life in danger, even if they hope to take the matter to the European Court of Human Rights in time.
Julian Assange should not be extradited because he is the subject of “political” prosecutions after revealing facts of “serious state criminality”, argued Edward Fitzgerald.
The Australian is being prosecuted for “ordinary journalistic practices” consisting of “obtaining and publishing information”, the lawyer argued. His client faces a disproportionate sentence in the United States and “there is a real risk that he will suffer a flagrant denial of justice,” he added.
On Wednesday, representatives of the American government must present their arguments.
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Up to 175 years in prison
The founder of WikiLeaks was arrested by British police in 2019 after spending seven years in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, in order to avoid extradition to Sweden in a rape investigation, dismissed in 2019.
Since then, he has fought to avoid being returned to the United States, where he faces up to 175 years in prison. He is being prosecuted for having published since 2010 more than 700,000 confidential documents on American military and diplomatic activities, particularly in Iraq and Afghanistan.
AFP
Among them is a video showing civilians, including two Reuters journalists, killed by fire from an American combat helicopter in Iraq in July 2007.
Before the hearing on Tuesday morning, a crowd chanting “Free Julian Assange” gathered outside the High Court, alongside his wife Stella Assange: “Julian needs his freedom and we all need the truth.”
AFP
In January 2021, British justice initially ruled in favor of the founder of WikiLeaks. Citing a risk of suicide, judge Vanessa Baraitser refused to give the green light to extradition. But this decision was later reversed.
In an attempt to reassure him about the treatment that would be inflicted on him, the United States affirmed that he would not be incarcerated at the very high security ADX prison in Florence (Colorado), nicknamed the “Alcatraz of the Rockies”, and that he would receive the necessary clinical and psychological care.
AFP
The Americans had also raised the possibility that he could ask to serve his sentence in Australia.
These guarantees convinced the British justice system, but not the support of Julian Assange, who received the support of numerous journalist organizations.
Reporters Without Borders, which denounces “political” prosecutions, was concerned about his absence from the hearing, indicating that it had noted that he had a broken rib in January due to a strong cough.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese also recently denounced the prosecution of Mr. Assange by the American justice system, and the Australian Parliament adopted a motion calling for an end to it.
