The U.K. Denies U.S. Request to Extradite Julian Assange - Founder of WikiLeaks

  • By Dawna M. Roberts
  • Jan 06, 2021

A British judge ruled that Julian Assange cannot be extradited to the U.S. to stand trial on charges of espionage linked to his founding and use of WikiLeaks. The U.S. does have the option of appealing the verdict.

Who is Julian Assange?

Julian Paul Assange is a 50-year old Australian editor and publisher who dabbles as an activist using his WikiLeaks website. Assange founded the WikiLeaks website in 2006. However, it didn’t reach national attention until 2010 when he published a series of material from U.S. Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning. The content exposed included video and war logs from Bagdad, Afghanistan, and Iraq. The U.S. government immediately opened an investigation into WikiLeaks. 

In November 2010, Sweden issued a warrant for his arrest on charges of sexual assault. Assange skipped bail and took refuge from the Embassy of Ecuador in London who provided him asylum. He believed that the charges were trumped up to get him extradited to the U.S. for leaking government data. Sweden eventually dropped the charges saying their evidence had dwindled over time. 

During the 2016 presidential campaign, WikiLeaks came into view again when it leaked Democratic Party emails illustrating that the party favored Hillary Clinton over Bernie Sanders. 

On April 11, 2019, amidst disputes with the Ecuadorian government, his asylum was revoked, and Assange was arrested for skipping bail and sentenced to 50 weeks in prison. At that time, the U.S. dusted off an indictment against Assange for espionage (and 18 counts of illegal operations pertaining to how he accessed the information). The U.S. government requested that the British government extradict him to the U.S. to stand trial. Currently, Assange is incarcerated at Her Majesty’s Prison (HMP) in Belmarsh and is reportedly in poor health.

On January 4, 2021, District Judge Vanessa Baraitser denied the United States’ request for him to be extradited, stating that it would be “oppressive” to his mental health. Assange is currently am extreme suicide risk. The U.S. has 14 days to appeal the decision. 

In a recent article, The New York Times said, “Many have hailed Mr. Assange as a hero for transparency who helped expose U.S. wrongdoings in Iraq and Afghanistan. But he has also been criticized as a publicity seeker with an erratic personality.”

The New York Times further described his current condition as well as “Mr. Assange’s mental and physical health deteriorated while he was held in prison in Britain, experts warned. Nils Melzer, the United Nations special rapporteur on torture and ill-treatment, said in November 2019 that the punishment against Mr. Assange amounted to “psychological torture” Doctors said that his health had worsened during the hearing.”

What is WikiLeaks?

WikiLeaks is a website that has exposed thousands of secret government documents, videos, emails, and more. The founder and writers stand behind the first amendment claiming free speech; the U.S. government sees it differently, claiming that the site poses a threat to government security. The U.S. government has called the site “one of the largest compromises of classified information in the history of the United States.”

The website features articles and information on intelligence, the global economy, international politics, corporations, government, war, and the military. The design is minimalistic and has a journalistic flavor. 

At the bottom are links for the Tor browser, Tails (a secure/private operating system you can access from a flash drive), Courage (freedom organization protecting freedom of speech and other rights), and Bitcoin (a way to make private, secure donations and payments). One thing is for sure, WikiLeaks is heavy on privacy and security. 

The Last Word

President Donald Trump considered Julian Assange as a candidate on his list of pardons. So far, he has not intervened, but before he leaves office, he may absolve Assange of any wrongdoing putting the matter to rest once and for all.  

The public outcry claiming free speech impingement is weighing heavily on this issue as well. The Hacker News reported that the U.S. nonprofit Freedom of the Press Foundation posted a tweet saying, “The case against Julian Assange is the most dangerous threat to U.S. press freedom in decades. This is a huge relief to anyone who cares about the rights of journalists.”

If Assange is tried and convicted, he could face ten years in federal prison. 

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