Kidnapping journalists on US behest Assanges father supporters tell RT extradition zombie case will have dire consequences
Extradition case against Julian Assange should have been killed âstone deadâ long ago, the imprisoned journalistâs father and prominent supporters told RT, adding that its political nature does not allow it to be laid to rest.
Prosecution of WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange has turned into a âzombie caseâ that continues to âraise itself from the deadâ and just âwonât die,â his father John Shipton told RT, though it should have ended long ago due to the many scandals surrounding it.
Shipton singled out the fact that an Icelandic WikiLeaks volunteer â" turned FBI informant â" named Sigurdur Ingi Thordarson admitted this summer that Assange never instructed him to carry out any computer hacking, despite earlier testimony to the contrary. Thordarson himself has since been arrested in Iceland, but this story seemingly did not affect Assangeâs case in any way.
Also on rt.com US appeal hearing to extradite Julian Assange concludes in UK High Court with no immediate rulingThe prosecution seems to just disregard all the context surrounding this high-profile case, believes John Rees, organizer of the âDonât Extradite Assange Campaign.â
âThey are denying the impact of spying at the Ecuadorian embassy; they are denying the fact that a leading witness [revealed] himself to be a liar. They are ignoring the CIA kidnap-or-kill plot,â Rees told RT, adding these are all facts that ought to play a vital role in analyzing the case.
It is not sensible to insist that somebody should be given into the care of the very institution, which has plotted to kidnap or kill him. That should have killed this case stone dead but it has not.
âHollow assurancesâ & shadow of tortureIf this case is allowed to proceed and Assange is eventually handed over to the US justice system, that might spell disaster for him, warned Kristinn Hrafnnson, an Icelandic investigative journalist who was the spokesperson for WikiLeaks before becoming its editor in chief in 2018. Although Hrafnnson believes that the âcommon senseâ judgement in this case would be to not extradite the WikiLeaks founder, he still fears that this could be âfar awayâ when the British judge passes their judgement.
If Assange does get extradited to the US, âit is certain that he will be convicted in⦠Virginia, where the jury pool is between 60 and 80 percent either direct employees of the CIA or the State Department or their close family members,â Hrafnnson alleged.
âHe is charged with offenses that can carry up to 175 years in prison. That could be the outcome. On top of that, he could be put in isolation; in solitary confinement. That is a certainty, no matter what hollow assurances they try to maintain,â Hrafnsson added, pointing to the fact that Amnesty International recently stated that US assurances are ânot worth the paper they are written onâ due to the fact that âprolonged solitary confinementâ is commonplace in the country.
Lauri Love, a British activist who himself barely escaped the attention of the US justice system over his alleged activities with the Anonymous hacker collective, also harbors no illusions about what Assange could face if extradited to America.
The US prison system is designed to degrade people by treating them âworse than animals,â he told RT, calling it nothing short of a âsource of slave laborâ in a modern-day world, where inmates are forced to âwork to surviveâ and maintain contact with their families.
âSomeone like Julian Assange, who is considered such a risk to the powers that be for his acts of journalism, would be subjected to special measures that just mean solitary confinement and that effectively means being [subjected] to torture,â Love added.
Also on rt.com Amnesty says US vows not to torture Assange âarenât worth paper theyâre written onâ due to Washingtonâs dismal human rights recordBritish MP and former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said that Assange had already suffered enough despite having âno convictionsâ in the UK, particularly those that would warrant sending him to a maximum-security prison reserved for people who committed âvery serious crimes.â That was on top of the years the WikiLeaks founder had to spend inside the Ecuadorian embassy, where he was subjected to surveillance, he added.
âMr. Assange has paid a massive price already for telling the world the truth of the dangers that we face from illegal war,â Corbyn said, adding that he hopes the WikiLeaks founder âis allowed to stay and the appeal launched by President [Joe] Biden will be rejected.â
'Oppression of journalistsâ will continue?Assangeâs supporters argue that the reasons that allowed this case to drag for so long are purely political. They believe the âpowers that beâ seek to make Assange an example, to discourage others from following in his footsteps and set a precedent for further persecution of journalists and whistleblowers.
âOppression and intimidation of journalistsâ will continue, Shipton said. As long as the US is allowed to persecute people around the world with impunity, âthey will say anything and other countries will take upon themselves this privilege of kidnapping the journalistsâ under the auspices of Washington, he added.
Also on rt.com Snowden tells The Belmarsh Tribunal: If you love truth, you're as much of a criminal as Assange and risk sharing his fateLove also believes that âthe US is trying to exercise its very dubious laws outside of its jurisdiction and lock people up for activities that are in public interest, like journalism in Julianâs case.â In this instance, âefforts are made to discourage particular kinds of bravery, courage or someone having an impudence to stand up to power,â the activist said, adding that one of the issues that should be debated here is âwhy we should be allowing the US to act as a superior hegemony.â
The very concept of ânational securityâ the US employed in its hunt for Assange is a smokescreen designed to leave people blind to the stateâs actions, Rees believes.
âNational security is a blanket that covers absolutely anything that a state wants it to cover,â he said. âWhat it really means is that you cannot tell people vitally important things about the way in which their country is run under this system.â
You are supposed to rely on government handouts and government PR, government spin and not anything that falls outside of it. It is not acceptable in democracy. It is not an acceptable form of journalism. It is not an acceptable form of free speech.
Assangeâs supporters have been rallying in London to demand freedom for the jailed WikiLeaks co-founder for several days now, as the UK High Court met to hear the US appeal to extradite the journalist. On Thursday, the hearing ended with no immediate ruling.
Also on rt.com Caitlin Johnstone: The Assange persecution lays out Western savagery at its most transparentThe US governmentâs original extradition request was rejected in January, when UK Judge Vanessa Baraitser ruled that Assange, whose mental health had been rapidly deteriorating, would be at risk of suicide in an American prison.
Assange could face up to 175 years in prison if extradited to the US and found guilty of charges of violating the Espionage Act. He has been held in Londonâs top-security Belmarsh Prison since April 2019, when he was dragged out of the embassy after Ecuador revoked his asylum.
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