The Post Millennial
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Julian Assange, founder of WikiLeaks, hero to some, traitor to others, is set to fight what may be his last battle against being extradited from Britain to the United States. A hearing has been scheduled to take place at the High Courts in London on February 20-21. It will be presided over by a two-judge panel to reexamine the decision made by a judge last June that denied Assange’s appeal request to block extradition.
The 52-year-old Australian is facing multiple charges from U.S. officials including violation of the Espionage Act, receiving, possessing, and communicating classified US government information to the public and conspiring to commit computer intrusion. The gravity of these accusations are substantial. Should he be extradited to the United States, Assange would stand trial in Alexandria, Virginia, potentially facing a staggering sentence of up to 175 years in a maximum-security prison.
The charges date back to 2010, when a US Army intelligence analyst named Bradley Manning, who has since undergone sex reassignment surgery and now goes by the name Chelsea Manning, stole 750,000 pages worth of classified cables, videos, and documents from the Department of Defense and then sent it, the largest unauthorized leak of classified material in US history, unsolicited, to Wikileaks.
Assange, who founded Wikileaks in 2006 and served as its de-facto leader at the time, eventually made the judgment call to publish the material. It stands to note, however, that there was no evidence that he and Manning communicated or that he in any way directed or encouraged Manning’s actions.
Gabriel Shipton, the brother of Julian Assange, released a statement emphasizing the significance of the upcoming hearing, stating, “This hearing signals a crucial stage in Julian’s battle for justice and is the end of the line in the UK courts.” Shipton continued, “This Christmas will be Julian’s 5th in a UK prison. He has gone through years of uncertainty, his mental and physical health getting worse and worse. He should be able to come home to Australia with his children and get the support he needs. I urge the Prime Minister to pull out all the stops in his efforts to end Julian’s suffering. Bring Julian home.”
The scheduling of the February hearing date follows a series of bipartisan endeavors undertaken by lawmakers in the United States and Julian Assange’s native Australia, urging US officials to dismiss the charges against Assange and cease their extradition appeals.
Julian Assange became the first publisher to face charges under the Espionage Act. The case has sparked concerns among numerous press freedom organizations and Assange supporters, who argue the prosecution establishes a perilous precedent aimed at criminalizing the basic principles of journalism, while US prosecutors and critics contend Assange’s WikiLeaks publication of classified material endangered the lives of US allies.
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