THE HIGH Court ruled yesterday that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange can be extradited from the UK to the US, where he faces a sentence of up to 175 years in a high-security ‘Supermax’ prison.
In January, a UK court ruled that he could not be extradited due to concerns over his mental health. The US has now overturned this decision through winning yesterday’s appeal.
This means that the case will go back to District Court where all the evidence about the medical risks to Assange will be re-heard. The Assange campaign can appeal to a higher court, the Supreme Court and then the European Court of Human Rights.
Craig Murray, former British ambassador to Uzbekistan, said: ‘Today’s judgement was a partial victory in that the judge found that on the medical evidence and on the evidence of conditions in American jails the magistrate had made the correct decision in refusing to extradite Julian Assange.
‘However, they said based purely on diplomatic assurances from the United States and a diplomatic note that they accepted the word of the United States government as to the conditions in which Julian would be held.
‘And they said that this is because they were solemn assurances from a state. But of course these are solemn assurances from a state whose war crimes and murder of civilians were exposed by Julian Assange.
‘You cannot accept these kind of assurances from the government of the United States. And the government of the United States has broken precisely these kind of assurances in other legal cases for which there are were a series of judgements of the European Court of Human Rights which were ignored.’
Stella Moris, fiancee and mother of Assange’s two sons, told reporters outside the court: ‘Julian Assange has been accused of publishing the truth about war crimes, about CIA kill teams.
‘And we know more about the abusive nature, the criminal nature of this case. Julian exposed the crimes of CIA torturers, of CIA killers, and now we know that those CIA killers were planning to kill him too.
‘How can these courts approve an extradition request under these conditions?
‘How can they accept an extradition to a country that plotted to kill Julian?
‘That plotted to kill a publisher because of what he published.
‘This goes to the fundamentals of press freedom and democracy.
‘We will fight. Every generation has an epic fight to fight, and this is ours.
‘Because Julian represents the fundamental of what it means to live in a free society.
‘Of what it means to have press freedom. Of what it means for journalists to do their job without being afraid of spending the rest of their lives in prison.
‘The UK imprisons journalists. They are imprisoning Julian on behalf of a foreign power which is taking an abusive, vindictive prosecution against a journalist.
‘And this is what it is about. I urge everyone to come together and fight for Julian. Julian represents all of our liberties and all of our rights.’