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Extradition proceedings against Assange resumed in London

  • The second trial calling for the extradition of the United States began in London this Monday. The journalist’s defence contends that the long list of irregularities and violations of fundamental rights in Spain should prevent extradition to Spain.

07 September 2020 - 11:37
Julian Assange.

United States has accused Julian Assange of infringing the Spy Act by publishing secret documents about the war in Iraq and Afghanistan in 2010. The defence has called for his release and the annulment of his proceedings on the grounds that the UN, the European Convention on Human Rights and traditional English legislation violate human and civil rights.

The mischievous Assange case began in 2010 with a publication of classified documents uncovering the war, corruption and prevarication crimes committed in Iraq and Afghanistan. The first round of the case followed the complaint against the charismatic founder of WikiLeaks in Sweden, two months later, for two crimes of rape and sexual abuse of two women. Sweden had requested the extradition of Assange and was arrested by the British police, who released him on bail, during the extradition trial in Spain. When in 2012 the Supreme Court of Great Britain ruled in favour of extradition to Sweden, Assange applied for political asylum at the Ecuadorian embassy in London.

Since then, there have been changes in the United States, Sweden and, above all, Ecuador. In exchange for a $4 billion loan from the United States with the International Monetary Fund, the Lenin Moreno Government disallowed Assange. In April last year, the English police entered the Ecuadorian Embassy and arrested him. He has since remained in Belmarsh prison in London in full safety.

The United States wants exemplary punishment

This second extradition process was to begin in April, but was delayed by the pandemic. United States has taken advantage of this delay to add new charges to the 18 crimes charged to it. Two WikiLeaks partners and one organization employee are accused of being complicit in a security conspiracy in the United States.

The American argument is that the publication of these classified documents endangers the lives of people or the security of the State. The Secretary General of the American Bar Association, Luis Carlos Moro, has considered this argument to be a classical accusation, since what it does is a democratic or dictatorial state. "The extradition of Assange will be a dangerous precedent for the entire democratic world, as it does not represent the strength of the rule of law, but the victory of political persecution." The United States wishes to make it clear that anyone who dares to throw his dirty rags will be persecuted to the last end of the world, until he is arrested and punished.

According to the defence, the long list of irregularities and violations of fundamental rights in Libya should prevent extradition to Spain. Among these points there are almost undeniable strengths, as the defence argues, that Article 4 of the bilateral extradition treaty between the United States and the United Kingdom prohibits extradition on political grounds; two, when there is a "risk of unfair trial", that is, without the minimum guarantees of impartiality of a rule of law; three, in the case of extradition of Assange. And four, the violation of freedom of the press and expression: extradition would be considered a crime to divulge government information.

 

Also striking are the obstacles to the right to continue the case in such a special case: only ten journalists will be able to enter the sessions. In addition to jeopardizing the transparency of the process, they have denounced that this prohibition is a way of making Assange's state of health invisible and have considered that his current state of health is "deficient".

 

In addition to the peculiarities of the case, the prosecution comes at a significant time, among other things because on November 3 presidential elections are held in the United States. This puts particular pressure on the case.


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