Jekaterina Saveljeva
US provides assurances over extradition of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange
Extradition of the WikiLeaks founder moves a step closer after the US government gives diplomatic assurances over his treatment in the US. Assange supporters accuse the US of ‘weasel words’
The US has provided assurances requested by a UK court that could open the way for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to be extradited from Britain to face espionage and hacking charges in the US.
The High Court in London ruled in March that Assange would be allowed to appeal against extradition if the US government did not deliver diplomatic assurances over his rights under the US Constitution and his treatment in the country.
The 52-year-old faces 18 charges under the US Espionage Act and one charge under the US Computer Fraud and Abuse Act over WikiLeaks’ publication of US military documents and diplomatic cables leaked by US Army whistleblower Chelsea Manning.
The US government today met a court deadline to provide assurances that Assange would be able to rely on the First Amendment right to free speech and that he would face no additional charges that would lead to a death penalty being imposed.
However, Assange’s lawyers have questioned the value of the US assurances, which will now be considered at the High Court in a hearing on 20 May.
Stella Assange, wife of Julian Assange, said the assurances did not address concerns about his treatment in the US.
“[The US] makes no undertaking to withdraw the prosecution’s previous assertion that Julian has no First Amendment rights because he is not a US citizen,” she said. “Instead, the US has limited itself to blatant weasel words claiming that Julian can ‘seek to raise’ the First Amendment if extradited.” she added.
“The diplomatic note does nothing to relieve our family’s extreme distress about his future – his grim expectation of spending the rest of his life in isolation in a US prison for publishing award-winning journalism,” she said.
Last week, president Joe Biden raised a glimmer of hope that the extradition may not go ahead when he confirmed the US was considering a request by the Australian government to end Assange’s prosecution.
Assange’s prosecution under US espionage and computer hacking laws has led to warnings from major news outlets and campaign groups that his extradition would set a legal precedent that would have a chilling effect on the work of journalists.
The press freedom campaign RSF International posted on X: “No matter what assurances the US has provided in the final stages of extradition proceedings against Julian Assange, the grounds of his appeal deserve proper consideration by the UK High Court.”
Read more about Julian Assange’s extradition case
- US president Joe Biden says he is considering requests by Australia to end the prosecution of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange under espionage and computer fraud charges.
- US extradition of Assange is ‘state retaliation’ for exposing war crimes, court hears.
- Assange created a ‘grave and immediate risk’, says US government, as it seeks extradition.
- WikiLeaks founder faces last appeal against ‘political’ extradition.
- Assange appeals against home secretary Priti Patel’s extradition order.
- Lawyers for Assange say the US has introduced an 11th hour indictment against the WikiLeaks founder that provides additional grounds for his extradition.
- On the second day of his extradition hearing at the Old Bailey, judge informs the WikiLeaks founder he could be removed and potentially banned from court for interrupting witnesses.
- US journalism historian and investigative journalist Mark Feldstein tells a UK court that use of the Espionage Act against Assange will have wide implications for the press.
- Trevor Timm, co-founder of the Freedom of the Press Foundation, tells a court that if the US prosecutes Julian Assange, every reporter who receives a secret document will be criminalised.
- WikiLeaks founder will be held under special administrative measures if extradited to the US, said Eric Lewis, a US legal expert, effectively placing him in solitary confinement.
- MEPs and NGOs say they have been denied access to observe extradition proceedings against WikiLeaks founder in Central Criminal Court.
- WikiLeaks founder held back 15,000 documents from publication at the request of the US government, court hears.
- Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked highly classified documents that changed the course of the Vietnam War in the 1970s, says WikiLeaks exposed a serious pattern of US war crimes.
- WikiLeaks and its media partners used software developed by an independent non-government organisation (NGO) to redact information that could identify individuals from 400,000 classified documents on the Iraq war, a court heard today.
- New Zealand investigative journalist and author Nicky Hager said that WikiLeaks’ publication of a video showing a US helicopter firing on civilians, along with the publication of secret war logs, ‘electrified’ the world to civilian deaths.
- Julian Assange was offered a “win-win” deal that would allow him “to get on with his life” and benefit US president Donald Trump.
- Khalid El-Masri said that disclosures by WikiLeaks showed that the US had intervened in a German judicial investigation into his torture and kidnapping by the CIA.
- Trump supporter Cassandra Fairbanks was given advanced details of US plans to oust WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange from the Ecuadorian Embassy and to arrest him for over documents leaked by former soldier Chelsea Manning.
- WikiLeaks published unredacted cables after password was disclosed in a book by Guardian journalist David Leigh.
- Julian Assange is on the autistic spectrum and has a history of depression that would put him at risk of suicide if he is extradited to a US prison.
- Nigel Blackwood, NHS consultant psychiatrist, told the Old Bailey court that although WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange had ‘moderate depression’ and autistic traits, it was ‘not unjust’ to extradite him.
- Forensic expert questions US claims that Julian Assange conspired to crack military password.
- WikiLeaks founder would be held in a cell the size of a parking space for 22 or 23 hours a day without contact with other inmates before trial.
- WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange would be held alongside convicted terrorist Abu Hamza in a supermax federal prison in Colorado, isolated from other prisoners, if he is extradited to the US, Old Bailey told.
- Two former employees of UC Global, which provides security services to the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, claim the company shared surveillance footage with the US of the WikiLeaks founder meeting with lawyers and other visitors.
- WikiLeaks disclosures led to ‘revelations of extraordinary journalistic importance’ about detention in Guantanamo Bay and civilian casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan.
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