Julian Assange has achieved an important victory in his legal battle against extradition to the United States of America. The judges of the High Court of London, called to rule on Assange’s right to present a new appeal in the United Kingdom – where the Australian journalist has been detained since 2019 – in fact agreed with him, thus averting his immediate extradition to the USA. In March, the Court ruled that Assange could only appeal against extradition to Great Britain if the Biden administration had not been able to provide adequate guarantees regarding a series of rights that Assange must be able to enjoy before US courts, including the right to invoke the First Amendment to the US Constitution, concerning freedom of expression. The American reassurances, which arrived in March, were not considered sufficient. Since, according to the judges, fears of an unfair trial overseas are well founded, this round was therefore won by Assange and his lawyers. The Australian journalist is being charged with espionage by the USA following the publication of thousands of confidential and diplomatic documents from the American government, for which he risks up to 175 years in prison.
After convening a hearing last 20 and 21 February, the High Court of London had swept aside six of the nine objections to the US request to extradite Assange formulated by his lawyers. At the same time, however, he had asked the USA to provide adequate reassurances on the remaining three, namely: the lack of guarantees that Assange, in order to defend himself, would have had the right to invoke the First Amendment to the US Constitution as an Australian citizen (extraditions are prohibited if the accused risks not enjoying the same rights as citizens of the requesting country); the lack of guarantees that Assange would not suffer discrimination during any future trial precisely because he cannot invoke US citizenship as protection; the lack of guarantees against a possible death sentence by the US court that would try Assange. The reassurances sent by the USA accepted the last two points, guaranteeing that Assange “will not suffer any prejudice because of his nationality with regard to the defenses he may seek to raise at trial and sentencing” and that “a death sentence will not be neither requested nor imposed on Assange. On the contrary, they remained extremely vague on the first, stating that Assange “will have the opportunity to try to rely on a trial that is under the protection of the first amendment”, but that such a decision “can only be made by the American Court”. During today’s hearing, the team of lawyers defending Assange did not contest the guarantees on the death penalty, accepting that it was an “unequivocal promise from the executive”, but focused its objections on the inherent issue First Amendment safeguards. Assange’s lawyers argued that the United States provided ‘glaringly inadequate’ guarantees on the fact that the founder of WikiLeaks he would be protected by freedom of the press if extradited to the US to face espionage charges.
Judges Victoria Sharp and Jeremy Johnson declared that Assange has grounds to challenge the British government’s extradition order at around 12.30 pm (1.30 pm Italian time). Upon reading the verdict, the thousands of supporters of the Australian journalist who gathered today near the building where the hearing took place set off loud choruses and thunderous applause. Most of the pro-Assange activists were already present on site since this morning, chanting slogans such as “Free Assange” for hours and holding signs with the words “Do not extradite Assange” or “Journalism is not a crime”. Among those present, in addition to the lawyer Stella Morris, Assange’s wife, and John Shipton, father of the founder of WikiLeaks, there were also the former British Labor leader Jeremy Corbyn, parliamentarians from Australia and other countries and activists from humanitarian organizations such as Amnesty International. In view of the next stages, thanks to today’s verdict, Julian Assange’s fight acquires new life, despite the enormous media silence of the Western media continue to weigh heavily on the misinformation and lack of collective awareness surrounding this matter.
[di Stefano Baudino]
