A hearing in a London court ended on Wednesday without a decision – the judges will decide at a later date whether the WikiLeaks founder is entitled to a full appeal process. For the 52-year-old Australian, it would be the last chance to defend himself against his deportation in a British court. The US Department of Justice accuses Assange of espionage.
A United States lawyer on Wednesday rejected allegations that the US was pursuing Assange because of his political views. Instead, Clair Dobbin argued that Assange had endangered other people by publishing unredacted documents. It was not a “blunder” or “mistake”, but rather huge amounts of uncensored material had been published.
Protesters demand release
In front of London’s Royal Courts of Justice on Wednesday, demonstrators again demanded that Assange be released. They held a banner and placards with slogans such as “Free Assange” and “Journalism is not a crime.”
If Assange’s appeal is rejected in London, he would still have to go to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg. His wife Stella Assange had announced that his team would immediately file an application for an injunction to prevent immediate extradition. Stella Assange also said in advance that she feared for his life because of the expected harsh prison conditions in the USA and her husband’s unstable psyche.
It was not initially clear when exactly a decision would be made on the appeal. However, Assange’s wife fears that the 52-year-old could be put on a plane to the USA within days.
“Discrepancies between legal understanding”
The German government indirectly spoke out against extradition of Assange to the USA. “It is the case that we see discrepancies between our legal understanding and the legal understanding of the United States of America,” said a spokeswoman for the Foreign Ministry on Wednesday in Berlin, referring to the balance between press law and betrayal of secrets. “The federal government is also expressing the different legal positions in this very specific case very clearly and very clearly to the contact persons, that is to say the contact persons in the United States and the United Kingdom,” she explained. The points for which Assange is accused in the USA are not punishable in Germany.
The US Department of Justice wants to try Assange on espionage charges. The US government accuses him of having, together with US whistleblower Chelsea Manning, stolen and published secret material from US military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, thereby endangering the lives of US informants. Supporters, on the other hand, see Assange as a journalist who brought war crimes to light. The Australian has been in London’s Belmarsh maximum security prison since his arrest in April 2019.
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