The United States is always at the forefront of demanding the release of political prisoners… except when it concerns them.
The founder of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, has just avoided – for the moment – being extradited to the United States. The High Court in London where he is being held is asking the Americans for more guarantees regarding Assange’s rights to a fair trial. And also that he would not be sentenced to death. British judges gave Washington three weeks to respond.
The United States says Assange put lives at risk by publishing secret military documents and is seeking his extradition on espionage charges.
Already without freedom for 12 years
Assange, a 52-year-old Australian, has been fighting US legal action against him for 12 years now. He spent seven years in the Ecuadorian embassy in London as a political refugee before being expelled and imprisoned by British authorities in 2019 – five years ago.
He faces 175 years in prison for releasing more than 700,000 secret documents given to him by intelligence analyst Bradley – now Chelsea – Manning in 2010 that revealed war crimes committed by the United States in Iraq and Afghanistan. A video showed an American helicopter in Baghdad in 2007 killing at least 12 unarmed civilians with machine guns, including two journalists from the Reuters agency.
In their decision, the British judges emphasize that Assange has “real chances of success” in his appeal: his extradition would be incompatible with freedom of expression.
The court took into account reports that the CIA under the Trump administration considered kidnapping Assange from the Ecuadorian embassy or having him assassinated.
Assange’s mental and physical health is deteriorating to the point where he would consider suicide if extradited. The Australians want him to come home. He enjoys broad political and popular support in Australia. The United States could commit to allowing Australia to repatriate Assange after his trial and conviction and then release him. The Americans raised the possibility that he could ask to serve his sentence in Australia.
Two weights, two measures
The United States and the United Kingdom criticized China – rightly – last year for the extraterritorial application of its national security law in Hong Kong. This is, according to a State Department spokesperson, “a dangerous precedent that threatens the human rights and fundamental freedoms of people around the world.”
Canada has joined the United States, the United Kingdom, the European Union and the United Nations in criticizing this legislation. Ottawa is concerned that Chinese law defines national security threats and offenses very broadly, raising concerns about “over-enforcement.”
There is an obvious parallel here with what Assange suffered, who only served as an intermediary between the document thief Manning and some of the biggest media outlets in the West. Assange was taken to court and has been deprived of his freedom for more than 12 years, while his five “accomplices” have not been worried. The New York Times, the Guardian, Le Monde, Der Spiegel and El Pais published this information of public interest taken up by media outlets around the world.
The Assange Affair is a dangerous attack on press freedom, which threatens journalists around the world.
Before leaving the presidency in 2017, Barack Obama commuted Manning’s 2010 sentence to 35 years, the longest sentence ever imposed in the United States for a media leak. Joe Biden should take inspiration from his predecessor.
I wrote on Yahoo Quebec in December 2010 and I repeat: Julian Assange deserves the Nobel Peace Prize.