Free Julian Assange NOW!
London, October 29 (RHC)-- The British court hearing the U.S. prosecutor's appeal against the refusal to extradite WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange announced that it will take its time before deciding.
"You gave us a lot of food for thought, so we will take our time to consider the decision," said Judge Ian Duncan Burnett at the end of the two-day hearing, which took place at the Palace of Justice in London.
Thursday's session was devoted to the presentation of the Australian journalist's defense arguments against the promises now given by the United States that Assange will not be placed in a maximum security prison or subjected to solitary confinement in case he is tried and convicted by the U.S. justice system.
Lawyer Edward Fitzgerald stressed that the risk of suicide, which was the justification given last January by the British district judge to oppose the extradition of the WikiLeaks founder, still exists.
His colleague Mark Summers mentioned, for his part, a recent investigative report published by the Yahoo News portal, in which anonymous sources claim that senior officials of the Central Intelligence Agency planned to kidnap and assassinate Assange during the time he was in asylum in the Ecuadorian embassy in London.
"This is the first time that the United States has sought the help of a British court to grant it jurisdiction over someone whom a government agency planned to assassinate," said Summers, who noted that the U.S. Congressional Intelligence Committee ordered an investigation into the veracity of the allegations made by the online publication.
The U.S. Justice Department intends to prosecute Assange for publishing thousands of secret files on WikiLeaks exposing war crimes committed by the U.S. military in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as diplomatic cables.
If the extradition request is successful, Assange could be sentenced to a total of 175 years in prison, based on the 17 criminal charges against him, which are related to alleged violations of U.S. espionage law.
As it transpired, British judges could take up to six months to announce their decision on the future of the Australian journalist and cyberactivist, who has been locked up in a London maximum security prison since his illegal arrest at the Ecuadorian embassy in April 2019.
