The High Court in London recently allowed WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to appeal against his extradition to the United States. Julian Assange represents the symbol of the fight against censorship of freedom of expression. His legal team now has several months to prepare his extradition defense: Assange faces 18 charges for disseminating classified government documents.
Detained since 2019 in Belmarsh, a prison in the United Kingdom, he constitutes a relevant international case of detention described as “arbitrary” by his supporters and various human rights experts.
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Julian Assange's legal affairs
In 2006, Julian Assange founded Wikileaks, a platform that collects testimonies anonymously, protecting sources through encryption. Thanks to this system, Wikileaks has collected hundreds of thousands of classified documents from governments around the world.. An example are the Iraq And Afghan war diarieswhich exposed the crimes of the United States in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
In 2010, Assange was arrested in England on sex crime charges originating from Sweden on a spurious basis. Released on bail in 2012 he requested political asylum at the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where he spent the next 7 years, under the continuous and pressing surveillance of the English and Ecuadorian authorities. Assange requested political asylum to escape what he denounced as a pretext to facilitate his future extradition to the United States.
In 2019, Ecuador revoked the asylum permit. The same day, British police arrested Assange. The United States, which has denied investigations into Julian Assange for years, revealed a conspiracy indictment dating back to 2018 and submitted an extradition request to try Assange in 2019.
How did the call come about?
British police arrested Julian Assange for breaching his bail conditions. The expected detention was short, and in the meantime also Swedish charges dropped. The imprisonment continued and continues due to the extradition request.
Millions of people, led by human rights and press freedom organizations, have expressed solidarity with Assange over the years. Two UN special rapporteurs denounced the terrible physical and psychological conditions in which the journalist finds himself and asked the British government to refuse his extradition.
In 2021, a judge ruled that due to poor mental health, Julian Assange he could not be extradited to the United States. The same year, the High Court quashed the conviction. The trial continued until the hearing on March 26, 2024.
The High Court in London has required the US government to meet certain conditions to extradite Assange. The United States gave a response deemed “ambiguous”. For this reason, the London court ruled that Assange could appeal. against extradition to the United States.
Wikileaks, cornerstone of freedom of expression
In addition to those already mentioned Afghan And Iraq War DiariesWikileaks he also denounced the human rights violations of detainees at Guantanamo prison, in Cuba, but under American jurisdiction. Julien Assange Yes he always positions himself as the spokesperson and recipient of all criticisms, accusations and legal proceedings aimed at the work of the organization.
The platform also had a major influence on the 2016 US presidential elections. In fact, he denounced the Democratic Party's attempts to suppress Bernie Sanders to compete as a candidate in the primaries against Hillary Clinton.
In 2017, Wikileaks released documents demonstrated CIA espionage and interference activities carried out with foreign governments around the world.
These are just some of the facts that Julian Assange and Wikileaks have brought to public attention. Over the years, the journalist has become a symbol of the fight for freedom of expression. Second Reporters Without Borders extradition would set a dangerous precedent for journalists and whistleblowers in the United States. There would be a before and after the conviction of Assange for freedom of information in the countries of the democratic West.
The High Court's decision revives hopes for Assange. All that remains is to wait for the call to find out how this story will turn out.
