A British district court judge had initially rejected a United States extradition request on the grounds that Assange was likely to kill himself if held under harsh United States prison conditions, which are internationally known to be horrible. United States authorities later provided so called "assurances" that the journalist and WikiLeaks founder wouldn’t face the severe treatment his lawyers said would put his physical and mental health at risk.
Now Britain’s top court on Monday refused Julian Assange permission to appeal against a decision to extradite him to the United States to face spying charges. The court said it refused because the case "didn’t raise an arguable point of law."
Assange’s lawyers will have four weeks to make submissions to the home secretary before her decision. There also still remain other routes to fight against his extradition, for instance by mounting a challenge on other issues of law raised at first instance that he lost on and have not yet been subject to appeal.
Last year, the innocent journalist suffered a stroke while in prison. He was left with a drooping right eyelid, memory problems and clear signs of neurological damage. He believes the stroke was triggered by the stress of the ongoing United States court action against him, and an overall decline in his health as he had his third Christmas behind bars.
The United States wants Julian Assange to face allegations of conspiracy to obtain and disclose national defence information after Wikileaks published hundreds of thousands of leaked documents relating to the Afghanistan and Iraq wars. He sheltered at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London in 2012 because he feared extradition, staying for seven years until he was forcibly removed and sent to Belmarsh in 2019.
Reporters without borders responded to the denial on their Twitter account:
Amnesty International also slammed the refusal to hear the Assange appeal: ~~~ embed:1503457484220026894 twitter metadata:d2lraWxlYWtzfHxodHRwczovL3R3aXR0ZXIuY29tL3dpa2lsZWFrcy9zdGF0dXMvMTUwMzQ1NzQ4NDIyMDAyNjg5NHw= ~~~
The Freedom of the Press foundation stated:
"Reminder: Virtually every major civil liberties and human rights group has denounced the Assange case as a threat to journalists' rights everywhere. The Biden admin needs to drop this case ASAP."
Protests are already announced for next month and will happen all over the world.
Sources:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10300037/Julian-Assange-stroke-Belmarsh-prison-Fianc-e-blames-extreme-stress.html
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2022/mar/14/julian-assange-denied-permission-to-appeal-against-us-extradition
https://twitter.com
The rewards earned on this comment will go directly to the person sharing the post on Twitter as long as they are registered with @poshtoken. Sign up at https://hiveposh.com.