US lawyers urge UK court to block Julian Assange extradition appeal bid | Julian Assange News

London court docket deciding if WikiLeaks founder ought to have additional alternatives to argue his case earlier than a UK court docket.

Attorneys for the US have urged a London court docket to dam a last-ditch bid by WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to enchantment his extradition from the UK to face espionage costs.

On the second and last day of a hearing at London’s High Court on Wednesday, attorneys representing the US stated Assange is being prosecuted for publishing sources’ names and never for his political views.

The US is in search of to place Assange on trial for WikiLeaks’ launch of huge troves of confidential US navy information and diplomatic cables. They argue the leaks imperilled the lives of their brokers.

Assange’s supporters, nevertheless, hail him as a hero who’s being persecuted for exposing US wrongdoing, whereas rights teams are involved that his prosecution might curb press freedom extra broadly.

On Tuesday, Assange’s attorneys informed the court docket the case was politically motivated, arguing their consumer was focused for his publicity of “state-level crimes” and that Donald Trump had requested “detailed choices” on the right way to kill him.

However, on Wednesday, attorneys for the US stated Assange’s prosecution was “based mostly on the rule of legislation and proof”.

Assange “indiscriminately and knowingly printed to the world the names of people who acted as sources of data to the US”, lawyer Clair Dobbin stated.

“It’s these core information which distinguish the place of the appellant from the New York Instances and different media shops,” she added. “It’s this which kinds the target foundation for his prosecution. It’s these information which distinguish him, not his political views.”

Assange himself was once more not in court docket on Wednesday nor watching remotely as a result of he was unwell.

‘Defend press freedom’

Assange, 52, has been indicted within the US on 17 costs of espionage and one cost of pc misuse over WikiLeaks’ publication of categorised US paperwork some 15 years in the past.

The UK authorities permitted Assange’s extradition to the US in June 2022, after a choose initially blocked it.

The Excessive Courtroom in London is now figuring out whether or not Assange can have additional alternatives to argue his case earlier than a UK court docket, or whether or not he has exhausted all appeals within the nation and should subsequently enter the method of extradition.

If Assange loses permission to enchantment, he will probably be susceptible to prosecution within the US underneath the Espionage Act of 1917 and will face a sentence of as much as 175 years.

However his supporters say an extradition can be an inadvertent loss of life sentence. “His life is in danger each single day he stays in jail, and if he’s extradited, he’ll die,” his spouse Stella Assange not too long ago informed reporters.

Jameel Jaffer, a professor of legislation and journalism at Columbia College, stated the case is the primary by which the US authorities has relied on the 1917 Espionage Act as the idea for the prosecution of a writer.

“A profitable prosecution of Assange on the idea of this indictment would criminalise quite a lot of the investigative journalism that’s completely essential to democracy,” he informed Al Jazeera.

Rights teams have expressed related considerations. “If Julian Assange is extradited, it’ll set up a harmful precedent whereby the US authorities might goal publishers and journalists world wide for extradition and prosecution,” Rose Kulak, Amnesty Worldwide’s Australia campaigner, stated in an announcement this week.

Reporters With out Borders known as on the US authorities to stop Assange’s “limitless persecution” and drop the case.

“Nobody ought to face such remedy for publishing data within the public curiosity,” stated Rebecca Vincent, the media watchdog’s director of campaigns. “It’s time to guard journalism, press freedom, and all of our proper to know. It’s time to free Assange now.”

The 2 justices listening to the case in London might ship a verdict at present or at a later date. Whether it is in Assange’s favour, a full enchantment listening to will probably be held to once more contemplate his problem. But when the WikiLeaks founder loses, his solely remaining choice can be on the European Courtroom of Human Rights.