High Court Allows Assange Extradition, Quashing His Discharge

The High Court allowed the U.S. appeal to reverse an order not to extradite Julian Assange and to send the case back to magistrate’s court.

By Joe Lauria
December 10, 2021
The High Court in London on Friday ruled in the U.S. appeal against a lower court decision not to extradite imprisoned WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange by sending the case back to Magistrate’s Court with instructions to send the case to the secretary of state to decide on Assange’s extradition.
The matter is now in the hands of the home secretary, Priti Patel, unless Assange’s lawyers appeal the decision to the U.K. Supreme Court, which they have said they will do. If extradited, Assange faces up to 175 years in prison on charges under the Espionage Act and one count of conspiracy to commit computer intrusion. Assange is the first journalist to be charged with espionage by the U.S. for obtaining and publishing state secrets.
Lord Justice Timothy Holroyde, who read the High Court’s summary decision in court in nine minutes, said the order by a lower court to discharge Assange was overturned and that he was to remain on remand in prison.  Holroyde said that the High Court had accepted the U.S. assurances that Assange would not be kept in harsh prison conditions in the U.S. He called them “solemn undertakings from one government to another.”
Continue reading at consortiumnews.com

Assange Plans To Appeal High Court Decision Backing Extradition To United States

Attorneys for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange plan to appeal to the Supreme Court in the United Kingdom after the country’s appeals court overturned a decision that blocked the extradition of Assange to the United States.
The High Court of Justice was “satisfied” with diplomatic assurances offered by the U.S. government related to how Assange would be treated in jail or prison, and they stated, “There is no reason why this court should not accept the assurances as meaning what they say.”
“There is no basis for assuming that the U.S.A. has not given the assurances in good faith,” the High Court also insisted.
Continue reading at https://thedissenter.org/assange-plans-appeal-high-court-decision-extradition/

Amnesty International Calls Assange’s Extradition Ruling ‘Travesty of Justice’

Responding to the High Court’s decision to accept the US’s appeal against the decision not to extradite Julian Assange Amnesty International’s Europe Director Nils Muižnieks said:
“This is a travesty of justice. By allowing this appeal, the High Court has chosen to accept the deeply flawed diplomatic assurances given by the US that Assange would not be held in solitary confinement in a maximum security prison. The fact that the US has reserved the right to change its mind at any time means that these assurances are not worth the paper they are written on.
“If extradited to the US, Julian Assange could not only face trial on charges under the Espionage Act but also a real risk of serious human rights violations due to detention conditions that could amount to torture or other ill-treatment.
“The US government’s indictment poses a grave threat to press freedom both in the United States and abroad. If upheld, it would undermine the key role of journalists and publishers in scrutinizing governments and exposing their misdeeds would leave journalists everywhere looking over their shoulders.”
Continue reading at www.amnesty.org

Appeal to Archbishop of Canterbury for Liberation of Julian Assange

Dec.1, 2019
Α letter signed by 60 intellectuals from 15 countries was delivered to Lambeth Palace calling on His Grace, Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury, to use his moral influence to end the unjustified imprisonment of Julian Assange in Belmarsh Prison.
|Signatories include, among others, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mairead Maguire, Noam Chomsky, Daniel Ellsberg, film-maker Oliver Stone, human rights defender Francis Boyle, former chair of the Human Rights Committee of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly Dick Marty, the Greek composer Mikis Theodorakis, the popular German Bundestag member Sahra Wagenknecht, the ex-editor of Le Monde Diplomatique Alain Gresh, William R. Polk, descendent of the 11^th President of the United States and former President of the Adlai Stevenson Institute of International Affairs, Manolis Glezos, named by Charles de Gaulle “the first Resistant in Europe”
.Continue reading at www.defenddemocracy.press

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