explained | Julian Assange’s extradition saga

the story So Far: On 20 April, the Westminster Magistrates’ Court in London formally Order issued for extradition of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange For the US, the court sent the order to Home Secretary Priti Patel, who would decide whether to allow extradition. According to reports, her lawyers have four weeks to give Ms Patel their point of view. If she approves the extradition, Mr. Assange could also try to challenge it by judicial review. Mr Assange, 50, is wanted in the US on criminal charges, including breaching the Espionage Act, after WikiLeaks published thousands of secret US files in 2010.

What did Mr. Assange do?

On April 5, 2010, a 39-minute video was released by a website called wikileaks.org, showing gun-shot footage of two US AH-64 Apache helicopters in action during the Iraqi insurgency against the US occupation in 2007. were. Video shows helicopter crew firing indiscriminately and killing civilians and two Reuters War correspondent. for about three years, Reuters had sought access to the video, which sheds light on the murder of its correspondents through the US Freedom of Information Act, but was unsuccessful.

The release of the video by WikiLeaks was made possible by intelligence analyst Bradley Manning (who later referred to himself as Chelsea) leaked nearly 400,000 documents, called Iraq War Logs, from a database of the US Department of Defense. a whistler. Ms Manning copied these files to a CD-ROM and uploaded them to WikiLeaks’ Dropbox.

WikiLeaks quickly released war logs that were published by several media organizations and highlighted human rights abuses by the occupying forces in addition to the increase in the death toll in Iraq. The release of the War Logs was followed by the publication of several news stories based on thousands of leaked diplomatic cables, which were also released by Ms Manning, making significant public displays of the ways, lifestyles and attitudes of the elite in various countries. The WikiLeaks model – using cryptographic tools to protect sources and allowing anonymous “leaks” of sensitive information (which may also be in the public interest) to be published – suddenly became a new model of investigative journalism widespread in those areas. brought to the fore which were relatively shielded. Public eye.

Later, WikiLeaks also published emails from John Podesta, an aide to then-presidential candidate (and former Secretary of State) Hillary Clinton, ahead of the 2016 presidential elections. While the WikiLeaks portal was maintained and maintained by hundreds of volunteers, the site was publicly represented by its founder and director, Julian Assange.

What charges have been leveled against Mr. Assange by the US government?

The Barack Obama administration launched an investigation into the Manning leak, and Ms. Manning was convicted of violating the Espionage Act by court martial in July 2013 and sentenced to rigorous imprisonment before the president reduced her sentence in January 2017. Went. However, the administration concluded that it would not pursue criminal charges against Mr. Assange and WikiLeaks. This is because it would have been inconsistent with the First Amendment to the US Constitution that guarantees freedom of the press, meaning that the Obama administration viewed WikiLeaks’ exposure as a work of journalism.

The US Justice Department under former President Donald Trump accused Mr. Assange of collaborating in a conspiracy with Ms. Manning to crack passwords on Defense Department networks to publish classified documents and communications on WikiLeaks in a sealed indictment in April 2017. Put it. These charges were closed in 2019.

Later, the Trump administration accused Mr. Assange of violating the Espionage Act of 1917 – he was indicted in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia on 17 new charges related to the act. These charges carry a maximum sentence of 170 years in prison. In June 2020, allegations of conspiracy with hacker groups escalated.

What was the trial in the UK about?

Mr Assange was tried in the UK over whether he should be extradited to the US to face charges. Before the trial began, he spent seven years in asylum at the small Ecuadorian embassy in London, after being denied extradition to Sweden to face rape charges, which were later dismissed by Swedish prosecutors. Assange was given asylum by then-Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa, but he could not guarantee a safe passage for the trip as British officials threatened arrest as soon as he left the embassy compound. Mr Assange had always indicated that extradition to Sweden was a ploy for him to hand him over to the US.

Then Ecuador’s President Lenin Moreno revoked his asylum and his citizenship (granted in 2018) on 11 April 2019, following Mr Assange’s disputes with Ecuadorian authorities, asking him for his asylum at the Ecuadorian embassy in London. He was imprisoned for 50 weeks for breach of bail. , A district judge, Vanessa Barritser, ruled in January 2021 that she could not be extradited to the US due to concerns about her mental health and the potential for suicide in a US prison coupled with harsh prison conditions. However, Mr Assange was denied bail after he was assessed as a flight risk and was allowed an appeal to US prosecutors which he filed on January 15, 2021.

On December 10, 2021, the High Court ruled in favor of the US after assurances from the Joe Biden administration on the terms of Mr Assange’s possible imprisonment – ​​that it would not keep him at the highest security prison facility (ADX Florence in Colorado, where the homes are located). ) terrorists, drug traffickers, and high-profile criminals) and that if convicted, he may, upon request, serve his sentence in his native Australia.

Mr. Assange appealed against the decision to the British Supreme Court, but on 14 March, Court denied permission to appeal, Meanwhile, the American Civil Liberties Union petitioned the US government to drop the charges. In a statement, the ACLU Speech, Privacy and Technology Project Director, Ben Wiesner, said, “Bringing criminal charges against a publisher for publishing truthful information sets a dangerous precedent that can be used to target all news organizations.” The government can be held accountable by publishing its secrets. Any prosecution by the United States of Mr. Assange would be unprecedented and unconstitutional, and open the door to criminal investigations by other news organizations. The government must immediately withdraw the charges against him. needed.”