A roundup of the coverage of the struggle for human rights and freedoms, from Mexico to Hong Kong
Continue reading...Category Archives: WikiLeaks
Julian Assange can be extradited to US to face espionage charges, court rules
Decision overturns previous ruling that Wikileaks co-founder could not be extradited due to mental health concerns
Julian Assange can be extradited to the US, the high court has ruled as it overturned a judgment earlier this year.
The decision today deals a major blow to the Wikileaks co-founder’s efforts to prevent his extradition to the US to face espionage charges, although options to appeal remain open to his legal team.
Continue reading...Julian Assange and fiancee claim they are being blocked from marrying
WikiLeaks founder and Stella Moris are preparing legal action against Dominic Raab and Belmarsh jail governor
Julian Assange and his fiancee, Stella Moris, say they are being prevented from getting married and are preparing legal action against Dominic Raab and the governor of Belmarsh prison.
The action accuses the justice secretary and Jenny Louis, who runs the prison where the WikiLeaks co-founder is being held while the US is seeking his extradition, of denying the human rights of the couple and their two children.
Continue reading...Julian Assange could serve jail term in Australia, lawyer for the US tells London court
The US is appealing to Britain’s high court over a refusal to extradite the WikiLeaks founder on espionage charges, saying he ‘has no history of serious and enduring mental illness’
US authorities have told British judges that if they agree to extradite Julian Assange on espionage charges, the WikiLeaks founder could serve any US prison sentence he receives in his native Australia.
In January, a lower UK court refused a US request to extradite Assange over WikiLeaks’ publication of secret US military documents a decade ago.
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Continue reading...Julian Assange loses court battle to stop US expanding extradition appeal
Judges say psychiatric expert report can form part of Washington’s full appeal
The WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, has lost a high court battle to prevent the US government expanding the grounds for its appeal against an earlier refusal to allow his extradition to face charges of espionage and hacking government computers.
On Wednesday, judges said the weight given to a misleading report from Assange’s psychiatric expert that was submitted at the original hearing in January could form part of Washington’s full appeal in October.
Continue reading...Britain risks damaging reputation by keeping Julian Assange in jail, says partner
Stella Moris says continued detention of WikiLeaks founder is compromising UK’s global standing
Britain would be on stronger ground campaigning against authoritarian regimes if it pressed the Biden administration to drop its call to extradite Julian Assange on espionage charges, Stella Moris, Assange’s partner, has told the Guardian.
Moris – who has two children with Assange – is trying to broaden the campaign of support for him by pointing to the global damage caused to the UK’s reputation by keeping him in jail for so long.
Continue reading...US government appeals UK ruling against Julian Assange’s extradition
Justice department confirms Joe Biden intends to have WikiLeak’s co-founder stand trial in US
The US government has appealed a UK judge’s ruling against the extradition of the WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange, according to a justice department official.
The appeal made clear that Joe Biden intends to have Assange stand trial on espionage- and hacking-related charges over WikiLeaks’ publication of hundreds of thousands of US military and diplomatic documents.
Continue reading...Julian Assange refused bail despite judge ruling against extradition to US
Judge says WikiLeaks co-founder ‘still has an incentive to abscond from these, as yet unresolved, proceedings’
Julian Assange has been refused bail by a judge who this week rejected a US request to have him extradited to face espionage and hacking charges.
The co-founder of WikiLeaks has been held at Belmarsh prison in south-east London for the past 18 months after he was evicted from the Ecuadorian embassy, where he sought asylum for seven years.
Continue reading...Australian government urged to press Trump to end US pursuit of Julian Assange
Coalition backbencher says a presidential pardon for the WikiLeaks co-founder is the best way to end the saga
The Australian government is facing calls from its own Coalition backbench and the opposition Labor party to press the Trump administration to end the pursuit of Julian Assange after a British court ruled out the WikiLeaks co-founder’s extradition to the United States.
With the US government signalling it plans to appeal the court’s ruling, the Coalition backbencher George Christensen and the South Australian independent senator Rex Patrick were among Assange supporters who saw a presidential pardon from Donald Trump as the best way to bring an end to the saga.
Continue reading...Julian Assange to seek release from prison after extradition ruling
Legal team for WikiLeaks co-founder expected to refer to Covid risk at Belmarsh prison
Julian Assange will make a fresh appeal to be released from prison this week after a British judge ruled that he cannot be extradited to the US to face charges of espionage and hacking government computers.
While district judge Vanessa Baraitser rejected arguments that Assange would not get a fair trial in the US, she blocked extradition on the basis that the WikiLeaks co-founder was at risk of taking his own life if he were to be held in isolation.
Continue reading...Julian Assange partner: extradition would be ‘unthinkable travesty’
Stella Moris speaks out on eve of ruling on whether WikiLeaks founder can be sent for trial in US
Julian Assange’s partner has said a decision to extradite the WikiLeaks co-founder to the US would be “politically and legally disastrous for the UK”, on the eve of the judge’s ruling.
Assange, 49, faces an 18-count indictment, alleging a plot to hack computers and a conspiracy to obtain and disclose national defence information in a case critics have decried as a dangerous attack on press freedom.
Continue reading...US intelligence sources discussed poisoning Julian Assange, court told
Extradition hearing told spying operation at Ecuador embassy included plot to take baby’s nappy
Plans to poison or kidnap Julian Assange from the Ecuadorian embassy were discussed between sources in US intelligence and a private security firm that spied extensively on the WikiLeaks co-founder, a court has been told.
Details of the alleged spying operation against Assange and anyone who visited him at the embassy were laid out on Wednesday at his extradition case, in evidence by a former employee of a Spanish security company, UC Global.
Continue reading...US has never asked WikiLeaks rival to remove leaked cables, court told
Cryptome also published documents that are at centre of Julian Assange extradition case
US authorities have never asked a WikiLeaks rival to take down unredacted cables that have been among those at the centre of the legal battle to send Julian Assange to the US, his extradition hearing has been told.
The evidence was given by a veteran internet activist whose website, Cryptome, published more than 250,000 classified documents a day before WikiLeaks began placing them online.
Continue reading...Trump ‘associates’ offered Assange pardon in return for emails source, court hears
WikiLeaks founder was asked to reveal source of leak damaging to Hillary Clinton, hearing told
Two political figures claiming to represent Donald Trump offered Julian Assange a “win-win” deal to avoid extradition to the US and indictment, a London court has heard.
Under the proposed deal, outlined by Assange’s barrister Jennifer Robinson, the WikiLeaks founder would be offered a pardon if he disclosed who leaked Democratic party emails to his site, in order to help clear up allegations they had been supplied by Russian hackers to help Trump’s election in 2016.
Continue reading...Julian Assange extradition hearing begins at Old Bailey
WikiLeaks founder in court to face US accusations of stealing military secrets
The WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, has appeared at the Old Bailey at the start of an extradition hearing on an 18-count US indictment that accuses him of recruiting hackers to steal military secrets.
Wearing a dark suit, tie and white shirt, Assange, 49, sat behind a glass security screen at the back of the court, his glasses pushed back on top of his head.
Continue reading...Julian Assange indictment fails to mention WikiLeaks video that exposed US ‘war crimes’ in Iraq
‘Shameful’ Collateral Murder footage shows Apache helicopter mowing down 11 civilians – including two Reuters journalists – in Baghdad
US prosecutors have failed to include one of WikiLeaks’ most shocking video revelations in the indictment against Julian Assange, a move that has brought accusations the US doesn’t want its “war crimes” exposed in public.
Assange, an Australian citizen, is remanded and in ill health in London’s Belmarsh prison while the US tries to extradite him to face 18 charges – 17 under its Espionage Act – for conspiracy to receive, obtain and disclose classified information.
Continue reading...Assange misses court hearing amid calls in Australia for his release
WikiLeaks founder ‘too ill’ to attend extradition hearing in London via videolink
A coalition of Australian MPs, human rights advocates and journalists have called on their country’s government to intervene in the case of Julian Assange, who was said to be too ill to attend the latest court hearing of his extradition case.
The imprisoned WikiLeaks founder was unable to attend via video link because of ill-health and advice from his doctors, according to his partner Stella Moris.
Continue reading...Julian Assange denied bail in UK after claiming ‘high risk’ of catching coronavirus
District Judge Vanessa Baraitser refused Assange’s release from Belmarsh Prison in London believing he still poses a flight risk
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s application for bail to avoid contracting the novel coronavirus has been denied by a British judge.
Assange was denied bail after arguing that his release from a UK prison would mitigate his “high risk” of catching coronavirus.
Continue reading...Judge orders Chelsea Manning’s release from jail in Virginia
Ex-army analyst, held for refusing to testify to grand jury over WikiLeaks, attempted suicide this week, legal team said
A federal judge has ordered that Chelsea Manning be released from jail in Virginia.
Related: Chelsea Manning hospitalized after suicide attempt, legal team say
Continue reading...Harry Dunn’s family want Julian Assange’s extradition stopped
US ‘hypocritical’ to seek Wikileaks founder’s extradition but not send Anne Sacoolas back to UK for trial over son’s death
The family of Harry Dunn has called for Julian Assange not to be extradited as long as the United States refuses to send the suspect in the teenager’s death back to Britain.
The family has have accused the US government of “demonstrating an extraordinary amount of hypocrisy” in seeking the Wikileaks founder’s extradition but rejecting a request for Anne Sacoolas to return to Britain.
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