Julian Assange

Use the 'special relationship' to stop Assange extradition: Greens Senator Richard Di Natale

Australian Greens Leader and Foreign Affairs spokesperson Dr Richard Di Natale has called upon the Australian Government to swiftly intervene to ensure that Julian Assange is not extradited to the United States.

"This arrest is a dark day for press freedom around the world," Di Natale said.

"Regardless of what you think about Assange as an individual, he is facing extradition to the US on charges relating to his work to shine light on potential war crimes – an act that won him Australia's highest honour for journalism.

"Seeking to punish Assange for exposing evidence of US atrocities in Iraq and Afghanistan would put a chilling effect on moves towards open and more transparent democracy.

"This is not a simple case of someone breaking local laws while overseas. If extradited to the United States, Assange will be on trial for alleged crimes he committed while not even in the country. Foreign nations must not be able to extradite and charge journalists who have exposed their wrongdoing. It sets a terrible precedent and would be a disaster for the free press.

"Australia must do more than simply provide a tokenistic offer of consular assistance. I call on the Foreign Minister to make the most of our so-called special relationship with the United States to ensure that Assange is not extradited to the US"

"It's time the ALP showed some courage and stood up for a more open and transparent democracy instead of again falling into line behind the Coalition."

Explainer: what charges does Julian Assange face, and what’s likely to happen next? Article by Holly Cullen

This very informative article is republished from . It is written by Holly Cullen, Adjunct professor, University of Western Australia. It is unusually clear in its explanation of various legal and political possibilities in Julian Assange's predicament. We were not aware of some of the ideas expressed in the article, although we have been following this case pretty closely at Candobetter.

Julian Assange, the Australian cofounder of , was in London, where he had been claiming political asylum for almost seven years.

He has faced a range of criminal charges and extradition orders, and several crucial aspects of his situation remain to be resolved.

What are the British charges against Assange, and what sentence could be imposed?

Assange moved into the Ecuadorian embassy in London in after losing the final appeal against his transfer to Sweden on a . He was then charged with failing to surrender to the court.

While in the embassy, Assange could not be arrested because of the international legal protection of diplomatic premises, which meant police could not enter without Ecuador’s consent. On April 11, British police were invited into the embassy and made the arrest. On the same day, Assange was found guilty, and awaits sentencing. The charge of to the court carries a jail term of up to 12 months.

What are the US charges against Assange?

Also on April 11, the United States government unsealed an indictment made in March 2018, with a conspiracy to help whistleblower crack a password which enabled her to pass on classified documents that were then published by WikiLeaks. The US has requested that the UK extradite Assange to face these charges before a US court.

What were the Swedish charges, and could they be revived?

In 2010, a Swedish prosecutor issued the EAW requesting Assange’s transfer to Sweden to face sexual assault allegations, which he denies. In 2016, Assange was questioned by Swedish authorities by video link while he remained in the Ecuadorian embassy. In 2017, they closed their investigation.

After Assange was arrested and removed from the embassy, the lawyer for one of the complainants indicated she would ask the prosecutor to reopen the case, as the statute of limitations on the alleged offence does not expire until 2020. As of April 12, Sweden’s Prosecution Authority is formally reviewing the case and could renew its request for extradition.

What are Britain’s legal obligations to extradite to Sweden or the US?

The UK, as a member of the European Union (for now!), is obliged to execute an EAW. The law on EAWs is similar to extradition treaties. However, the law also says it is up to the UK to decide whether to act first on the EAW from Sweden or the US extradition request.

Bilateral extradition treaties are usually based on identical reciprocal obligations. But the current , agreed in 2003, has been criticised for allowing the UK to extradite a person to the US solely on the basis of an allegation and an arrest warrant, without any evidence being produced, despite the fact that “probable cause” is required for extradition the other way.

The relative ease of extradition from the UK to the US has long been one of the concerns of Assange’s legal team. The treaty does not include a list of extraditable offences but allows for extradition for any non-political offence for which both states have criminalised the behaviour, which carries a sentence of at least one year in prison.

Espionage and treason are considered core “political offences”, which is why the US request is limited to the charge of computer fraud. Conspiracy to commit an extraditable offence is covered in the US-UK treaty, as it is in the EAW (and in the US-Australia extradition treaty).

Assange may legally challenge his extradition either to the US or to Sweden (as he previously did). Such challenges could take months or even years, particularly if Assange applies to the European Court of Human Rights arguing that an extradition request involved a human rights violation.

Given Assange’s previous conduct, and the likelihood that he will be sentenced to prison for failure to surrender to court, he will probably remain in a UK prison until all legal avenues are exhausted.

What are Australia’s obligations to Assange?

As an Australian citizen, Assange is entitled to consular protection by the Australian government, which means staff from the Australian High Commission in London will provide support for him in the legal process. The extent of that support is not set in stone, however, and both Foreign Minister Marise Payne and Prime Minister Scott Morrison have declined to provide detail on the basis that the matter is before the courts.

One possibility is that Assange will serve his sentence for failing to surrender to the court, after which the UK will deport him to Australia. At that point, it is possible the US could request extradition from Australia, and the would apply. The US charges would most likely be covered although not specifically mentioned in the treaty.

As with the UK-US treaty, political offences are excluded, and an extradited person can only be tried for the offence in the extradition request or a related offence, and in any event not for an offence not covered by the treaty. In addition, the treaty specifies that neither Australia nor the US is obliged to extradite its own nationals, but may do so. The fact that Australia has the option to refuse extradition purely on the ground of Assange’s nationality could lead to intense pressure on the government to do just that.

Canadian Peace Alliance Statement on the Arrest of Julian Assange

The Canadian Peace Alliance (CPA) condemns the governments of Ecuador, the UK, and USA, for their collaboration in arresting and extraditing journalist Julian Assange. This was not a secretive operation carried out under the cover of darkness. Rather, it was handled very roughly and in broad daylight to send a chill into the bones of would-be investigative journalists and whistle-blowers around the globe.

Assange's rendition from asylum in the Ecuadorian embassy touches all the peace movements of the world, because without the information provided by investigative journalists and whistleblowers, peace activists would not be able to hold our governments to account. Without courageous people such as Julian Assange and Chelsea Manning, we wouldn't know about the helicopter gunship massacre of Reuters journalists and ordinary civilians in Baghdad ( ). We wouldn't know about the details of rendition and torture carried out in Guantanamo (). We wouldn't know about the instructions to its embassy in Damascus, as early as 2006, that Washington was determined to overthrow the legitimate government of Syria (Wikileaks Papers, Chapter 6)

Assange's crime, in the eyes of the rulers of the US empire, was that, using their own words and documents, he weakened the establishment narrative that the US was a force for good in the world. Instead, writing in his journalistic capacity and interpreting his revelations, he showed the US government is a criminal enterprise which ignores international law, relies on brute force, threats, bribes, unholy alliances with barbaric client states, and torture, to try to establish its domination over the whole word. Assange was initially popular among the mainstream media under the Bush administration, who freely used his Wikileaks' material. However, they turned on him once Obama came into power and have not lifted their voices to defend him now.

Lest we Canadians feel smug in the knowledge that Assange is being tormented at the behest of the USA, let's recall that successive Canadian governments acted as handmaidens to US imperialism in Somalia (where black youths were tortured and killed by Canadian soldiers), the former Yugoslavia where Canadian jets participated in 78 days of illegal bombing), Afghanistan (where Canadian troops routinely handed over suspects to be tortured by Afghan authorities), Libya (where a Canadian general led the NATO operation which turned the country into a failed state), and Venezuela (where our foreign minister is playing a big role in an attempted regime change operation). Let's also note that the mainstream media in Canada is also promoting the lie that Canada is a force for good in the world and that it is extremely difficult to get any alternative viewpoint expressed in print, on radio, or on TV.

So it is now up to us in popular movements and on social media to remind the world what Assange revealed: the truth about the secret crimes of the US empire. We need to defend Assange and Chelsea Manning against trumped up charges of espionage and support their freedom of expression. We can carry on their work in Canada by building a peace movement which seeks to break out of centuries of supporting decaying empires and their corrupt military alliances (such as NATO) and develops instead a truly independent and peaceful foreign policy.

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