After 9 months for his arrest by the UK police from the Ecuadorian embassy and facing the risk of extradition to the United States, a high court judge in London has ruled today that Wikileaks founder Julian Assange will not be extradited for a trial in the US contending extradition would be oppressive by reason of Assange’s mental health. Will he finally be free?
However, as Green Greenwald pointed out on Twitter, the rejection by the UK court of the US request to extradite Julian Assange to stand trial on espionage charges is obviously great news. However, the judge endorsed most of the US government’s theories, but ultimately found the US prison system too inhumane to permit extradition.
The next step is that Assange’s lawyers will request he be released on bail pending US government’s appeal. Usually, defendants in such cases remain in jail pending appeal, and since the British judge, Vanessa Baraitser emphasized how “humane” the prison conditions are in the UK, Assange’s lawyers want to build their best case for why his current prison conditions are oppressive and why they can offer guarantees that he will not flee. Therefore, the judge set the bail hearing for Wednesday to determine if Assange will be free pending appeal.
But you know who can save Assange? Someone who deeply loved Wikileaks after publishing the emails of Hillary Clinton and exposing her criminal background. It is Donald Trump.
Yes, Trump could end this travesty with a pardon before war criminal Joe Biden ascends to power as a President who of course hates Wikileaks for exposing his war crimes. So, will Trump do it?
I personally doubt he has the guts for that, but let’s wait and see in the next two weeks.
In this regard, renowned journalist John Pilger said the discharge of Assange by the judge at the Old Bailey on grounds that he was too great a suicide risk if extradited to the US is, in fact, a face-saving cover for the British to justify their disgraceful political trial of Assange on America’s behalf.
WikiLeaks editor Kristinn Hrafnsson rightly pointed out that “The mere fact that this case has made it to court, let alone gone on this long, is an historic, large-scale attack on freedom of speech,”.
“This is a fight that affects each and every person’s right to know and is being fought collectively.”
So, ladies and gentlemen, we are living in a dystopian era when the so-called civilized world who claims to champion freedom of speech and free press is going after journalists and publishers such as Assange, Snowden, Chelsea Manning, and many more.
At times of war criminals becoming leaders of the “free world”, journalists are facing two options: be a real journalist and face prison or be a presstitute and a parrot to the governments and all doors of fortune will be open to you.
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Kevork Almassian is an award-winning political commentator from Syria. He is the founder of Syriana Analysis and is known for his contribution to the literature on the Syrian war.