Julian Assange has been handed a reprieve in his fight against extradition to the US after two judges ruled that the WikiLeaks founder could take his case to an appeal hearing but only if the UK and US are unable to provide the court with suitable assurances.
Supporters of Assange outside the high court in London on Wednesday. Photograph: Daniel Leal/AFP/Getty Images
In a written judgment, handed down on Tuesday morning, the president of the king’s bench division Victoria Sharp said:
Before making a final decision on the application for leave to appeal, we will give the respondent an opportunity to give assurances.
She said the assurances would need to include;
that the applicant (Assange) is permitted to rely on the first amendment, that the applicant is not prejudiced at trial, including sentence, by reason of his nationality, that he is afforded the same first amendment protections as a United States citizen, and that the death penalty is not imposed.
Stella Assange called judges’ decisions to delay their ruling over whether the WikiLeaks founder can bring a final UK appeal against extradition as “astounding”. She said;
I find the judgment utterly bizarre. As I said before, my impression is that the court is tying itself in knots.
The British courts should just have thrown out this case because it criminalises journalism. That is the takeaway here.
At a two-day hearing, his lawyers argued that the charges, which relate to the publication by Assange and WikiLeaks of thousands of classified and diplomatic documents linked to the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, were politically motivated and that the extradition request was unlawful.
The US has been waging a vendetta against Wikileaks, which has published a mass of leaked diplomatic cables, embarrassing several governments and international businesses. Assange has helped to expose the CIA as a vast international conspiracy dedicated to the ruthless pursuit of the aims of US imperialism by means of terrorism, murder, torture and the destruction of unfriendly governments through coups, wars and invasions. He has helped to expose the crimes of the US occupation forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.
US imperialism has in effect identified the Australian journalist as a target. To this end it has enlisted the aid of its foreign stooges to help it eliminate this target. This and this only, is the reason why the Swedish and British governments have conspired against Julian Assange. They are acting as the hired agents of Washington, which was, and remains, determined to take revenge on the man who has helped to expose its criminal machinations on a world scale.
Whilst this reprieve is good news you have to sceptically ask yourself whether the US want Britain to keep Assange safely locked up until the election is over in November. This is a political matter. All the judges involved in the UK courts in this case have been personally linked to members of the Tory government. Where is the actual justice?
The respondents have been given until 16 April to file their assurances. If they do not do so, leave to appeal will be granted. If they do file assurances by that date the parties will be invited to file further written submissions on the issue of leave to appeal with another hearing provisionally listed for 20 May.
If Assange had been denied permission to appeal he could have been extradited within days to face espionage charges in the US. It’s a complete travesty of justice and this persecution of Julian Assange represents an all-out assault on democratic rights.
