• UK High Court reverses course, approves Julian Assange's extradition to

    From Anonymous Remailer (australia)@21:1/5 to All on Sun Dec 12 08:21:15 2021
    XPost: alt.privacy.anon-server, alt.government.abuse, alt.privacy
    XPost: alt.society.revolution

    A UK High Court has approved the extradition of WikiLeaks
    founder Julian Assange to the US.

    Assange has been wanted by US authorities since the early 2010s
    for his role in acquiring and disseminating military and
    diplomatic documents via the WikiLeaks website. Following a long
    stint at Ecuador's embassy in London, he was finally arrested in
    2019, when his asylum was revoked. He has been indicted on 18
    criminal counts, including 17 espionage charges. The collective
    maximum sentence for all charges comes to 175 years, but the US
    government has indicated that the actual imprisonment would be
    far, far shorter.

    This decision follows an earlier ruling made in January 2021,
    which denied the US request based on the court's perception that
    it posed too great a risk to Assange's wellbeing. The judge
    forbade the extradition due to "a recurrent depressive disorder
    which was severe in December 2019 and sometimes accompanied by
    psychotic features (hallucinations), often with ruminative
    suicidal ideas."

    The new ruling takes concerns over Assange's mental health into
    account, but it also integrates a series of four "assurances"
    made by US officials. These include: a promise that Assange will
    never be held under any "special administrative measures"; a
    commitment to never house him within a maximum security prison;
    a guarantee that he will be allowed to serve his final sentence
    in his native Australia, if he wishes; and a commitment to
    provide him with "appropriate clinical and psychological
    treatment as recommended by a qualified treating clinician at
    the prison where he is held."

    Assange's fiancée, Stella Morris, was outraged by the decision,
    telling the UK's Sky News that his legal counsel intended to
    appeal the decision "at the earliest possible moment." She
    called the repeal a "grave miscarriage of justice," asking how
    the UK could allow him to be sent to a country that "plotted to
    kill him."

    This final accusation likely relates to reporting from earlier
    this year, which claims that the Trump administration explored
    the possibility of forcibly kidnapping or assassinating Assange
    in 2017. The US government has never officially commented on
    this report.

    Assange remains a controversial figure, with organizations like
    Amnesty International and individuals like Edward Snowden still
    calling for his release based on concerns over preserving
    freedom of speech and the arrest's chilling effect on
    investigative journalism. The US government, however, has never
    wavered in its stance that the WikiLeaks founder's actions were
    criminal in nature, putting lives at risk by divulging
    classified information to enemies of the US.

    Assange's legal team now has 14 days to file their appeal, which
    will delay any extradition proceedings until that filing is
    subsequently resolved.

    https://www.zdnet.com/article/uk-high-court-approves-julian- assanges-extradition-to-us/

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