Julian Assange Discussion

Trump is going to issue another round of pardons soon, perhaps we will see Julian Assange among them?

 
Does the US Want Julian Assange Dead? | Interview with Yanis Varoufakis
www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlCGxne3UsQ

Monday a British judge ruled that Julian Assange should not be extradited to the United States on charges of espionage and computer hacking. Yet despite that verdict the judgment arguably represented a blow to freedom of the press - with the judge accepting the substance of the case made by the US state department.

Tonight on Downstream Aaron Bastani is joined by Yanis Varoufakis, former Greek finance minister and prominent supporter of Julian Assange during his time in prison, as they discuss the meaning of the outcome and what next for the founder of Wikileaks.

Polish version (text)
Warufakis: Assange ma umrzeć. Ameryce tylko o to chodzi
krytykapolityczna.pl/swiat/ue/warufakis-assange-ekstradycja-do-usa/
 
This is an eleven minute clip of a documentary of Julian Assange titled "Julian Assange: The Price of Truth"
You've already heard about Wikileaks. But do you know everything about the struggles of the man behind the scenes? ‘Julian Assange: The Price of Truth’ is a way to clearly understand this story.

The decision not to extradite Julian Assange to the United States is unlikely to be the end of his long struggle. For the past 10 years, Premiere Lignes has investigated Assange and the WikiLeaks network. Home | Java Films on Demand
 
I believe Craig Murray was sentenced to 8 months in prison to prevent him from testifying on behalf of Julian Assange and against the CIA.


Journalist Craig Murray sentenced to eight months imprisonment​



Journalist and blogger Craig Murray has been sentenced to eight months in prison for contempt of court in a vindictive ruling with chilling implications for press freedom and democratic rights.

Murray was found guilty in March this year for his reporting on the 2020 trial of former Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond. Murray, a former British diplomat, was found to have published articles which supposedly “seriously impeded or prejudiced” Salmond's trial by breaching contempt of court legislation “preventing the publication of the names and identity and any information likely to disclose the identity of the complainers” against Salmond.

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Craig Murray speaking at a public meeting in defence of Julian Assange (credit: WSWS media)

Sentencing was delayed until May 7, the day after the Scottish election, with the final decision announced by Scotland's Lord Justice Clerk, Lady Leeona Dorrian, Tuesday morning. Dorrian was the judge in Salmond's trial.

Dorrian said of Murray, “It appears from the posts and articles that he was in fact relishing the task he set himself, which was essentially to allow the identities of complainers to be discerned—which he thought was in the public interest—in a way which did not attract sanction.”

Dorrian described Murray's actions as a “contempt of considerable gravity,” which “strike at the heart of the fair administration of justice.”

Murray was initially told to hand himself in to a police station within 48 hours. Only an intervention by his lawyer extended this to three weeks to allow Murray time to prepare an appeal.

Dorrian ignored QC Roddy Dunlop's mitigation that Murray was of “impeccable character" and “untarnished reputation,” that the 62-year-old had already suffered considerably and that the only purpose was “pour decourager les autres” (to discourage others). Submissions on Murray's health also appear to have been rejected.

Significantly Murray was told to surrender his passport. He was due to give evidence in a criminal prosecution over CIA spying activities against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in Spain this month. Murray has been a dedicated defender of Assange, commenting frequently and observantly on the monstrous, decade long, frame-up and persecution orchestrated by the US and UK.

Retaining Murray's passport was specifically intended to prevent him giving evidence in support of Assange. The judges initially proposed holding his next hearing on May 19 to prevent him travelling.

He commented that what he found “most shocking” was “the peculiar determination of the judges to make sure that, during the three weeks we have to lodge the appeal, I am not allowed to go to Spain to testify in the criminal prosecution for the CIA spying on Assange's legal team.”

The commentary of Murray, though he is a dedicated Scottish nationalist, on the background to the case against Salmond, who was acquitted of 13 sex charges, including attempted rape, was one of the few sources of analysis that allowed anyone to understand the political significance of what was taking place. In the face of a Scottish press that was almost universally hostile to Salmond, Murray exposed the factional infighting between Salmond and his successor, Nicola Sturgeon, that lay at the heart of the exaggerated and concocted charges against the former First Minister—all of which were rejected by a jury.

Murray brought out, and none of this has been refuted by two Scottish parliamentary inquiries on the matter, the efforts of a narrow clique of close advisers of Sturgeon to set in motion a #MeToo inspired witch-hunt, backed by the full weight of the Scottish legal apparatus, to prevent Salmond's intended return to politics.

Murray was found guilty, by a panel of three judges led by Dorrian, of so-called “jigsaw identification”—whereby certain facts released into the public domain, combined with other already known facts, may allow the identity of complainants to become known.

This is particularly sensitive in rape cases, where, in Scotland, anonymity rests on evidence being given in a “closed court” from whom all but “bona fide journalists” are excluded.

In contrast no contempt charges have been brought against the “bona fide” mainstream journalists whose own reporting on the trial potentially allowed some of the complainants to be identified. Murray commissioned a survey which concluded that eight percent of the Scottish population believed that they had been able to identify some of the complainants. The great bulk of these reported the mainstream media as their source. Murray insists he identified no-one.

As Murray commented on his own blog, “what has been harmful is the gross censorship of my journalism, with my entire daily account of the defense case removed...” As a result, he continued “it is once again virtually impossible for anybody to discover WHY Alex Salmond was acquitted...”

In her statement, Dorrian sought to place the case, and the harsh sentence against Murray, in the context of the general need for anonymity in cases where sexual assault is alleged. Dorrian noted that “the historical reluctance of complainers to come forward with their complaints, as a result of concern about how they will be treated is at the heart of the basis upon which anonymity is given.”

Murray himself has repeatedly said he upholds the anonymity of complainants in such cases. But the issue here, which Murray has repeatedly brought out—exposure of which is the reason for his being imprisoned—is the cynical use of legitimate anonymity safeguards as cover for a vicious politically motivated faction fight.

Murray's jailing has been condemned internationally. Journalist and Assange supporter John Pilger noted, “In these dark times, Craig Murray’s truth-telling is a beacon. He is owed our debt of gratitude, not the travesty of a prison sentence which, like the prosecution of Julian Assange, is a universal warning.”

Professor Noam Chomsky tweeted, “Craig Murray has compiled a remarkable record of courage and integrity in exposing crimes of state and working to bring them to an end. He fully merits our deep respect and support for his achievements.”

Murray intends to take his case to the UK Supreme Court on the basis that he did not identify anyone and his right to report being denied through an “extraordinary, impossibly strict application of 'jigsaw identification' and on fair process not have been observed.”
 
I believe Craig Murray was sentenced to 8 months in prison to prevent him from testifying on behalf of Julian Assange and against the CIA.
Have been following Craig's website for updates - "The truth is that in Scotland we now have a police, prosecutorial and justice system which is at the disposal of the Sturgeon clique for the pursuit of their private vendettas against political opponents. The fact that I am set to be jailed for “jigsaw identification”, when I demonstrably and provably did far less of this difficult to define activity than the mainstream media, who have not been prosecuted, is further evidence of that, as were the charges against Mark Hirst, and indeed Jeremy Gilchrist." Furthermore he states:

Please note that all of these political prosecutions have been based on thought crime. People in a small and definable political group – all people I know – are being prosecuted merely for publishing or saying things which annoy somebody in the Sturgeon clique. This is even before the Hate Crime Act, with its further swingeing restrictions on free speech, comes into effect. These are very dangerous times indeed to be any kind of dissident writer or campaigner in Scotland. The interesting thing, of course, is that the political orthodoxy being enforced is superficially liberal-left; a set of right-on beliefs whose exponents are so convinced of their own morality, they are happy to jail anybody who differs.

Professor Noam Chomsky tweeted, “Craig Murray has compiled a remarkable record of courage and integrity in exposing crimes of state and working to bring them to an end. He fully merits our deep respect and support for his achievements.”
Good of Chomsky to lend his words.

Murray's jailing has been condemned internationally. Journalist and Assange supporter John Pilger noted, “In these dark times, Craig Murray’s truth-telling is a beacon. He is owed our debt of gratitude, not the travesty of a prison sentence which, like the prosecution of Julian Assange, is a universal warning.”

Not that the following exactly matches with Craig himself, although journalists do and Pilger does. Pilger had had this interview on RT (May 19th) wherein Gaza (China factors also) is highlighted, which links to other usual matters within the palms of the tyrants hands.

 
A major witness in the United States’ Department of Justice case against Julian Assange has admitted to fabricating key accusations in the indictment against the Wikileaks founder.

Key witness in Assange case admits to lies in indictment​


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Amajor witness in the United States’ Department of Justice case against Julian Assange has admitted to fabricating key accusations in the indictment against the Wikileaks founder. The witness, who has a documented history with sociopathy and has received several convictions for sexual abuse of minors and wide-ranging financial fraud, made the admission in a newly published interview in Stundin where he also confessed to having continued his crime spree whilst working with the Department of Justice and FBI and receiving a promise of immunity from prosecution.

The man in question, Sigurdur Ingi Thordarson, was recruited by US authorities to build a case against Assange after misleading them to believe he was previously a close associate of his. In fact he had volunteered on a limited basis to raise money for Wikileaks in 2010 but was found to have used that opportunity to embezzle more than $50,000 from the organization. Julian Assange was visiting Thordarson’s home country of Iceland around this time due to his work with Icelandic media and members of parliament in preparing the Icelandic Modern Media Initiative, a press freedom project that produced a parliamentary resolution supporting whistleblowers and investigative journalism.

The United States is currently seeking Assange’s extradition from the United Kingdom in order to try him for espionage relating to the release of leaked classified documents. If convicted, he could face up to 175 years in prison. The indictment has sparked fears for press freedoms in the United States and beyond and prompted strong statements in support of Assange from Amnesty International, Reporters without borders, the editorial staff of the Washington Post and many others.

US officials presented an updated version of an indictment against him to a Magistrate court in London last summer. The veracity of the information contained therein is now directly contradicted by the main witness, whose testimony it is based on.

No instruction from Assange​

The court documents refer to Mr Thordarson simply as “Teenager” (a reference to his youthful appearance rather than true age, he is 28 years old) and Iceland as “NATO Country 1” but make no real effort to hide the identity of either. They purport to show that Assange instructed Thordarson to commit computer intrusions or hacking in Iceland.

The aim of this addition to the indictment was apparently to shore up and support the conspiracy charge against Assange in relation to his interactions with Chelsea Manning. Those occurred around the same time he resided in Iceland and the authors of the indictment felt they could strengthen their case by alleging he was involved in illegal activity there as well. This activity was said to include attempts to hack into the computers of members of parliament and record their conversations.

In fact, Thordarson now admits to Stundin that Assange never asked him to hack or access phone recordings of MPs. His new claim is that he had in fact received some files from a third party who claimed to have recorded MPs and had offered to share them with Assange without having any idea what they actually contained. He claims he never checked the contents of the files or even if they contained audio recordings as his third party source suggested. He further admits the claim, that Assange had instructed or asked him to access computers in order to find any such recordings, is false.

Nonetheless, the tactics employed by US officials appear to have been successful as can be gleaned from the ruling of Magistrate Court Judge Vanessa Baraitser on January 4th of this year. Although she ruled against extradition, she did so purely on humanitarian grounds relating to Assange’s health concerns, suicide risk and the conditions he would face in confinement in US prisons. With regards to the actual accusations made in the indictment Baraitser sided with the arguments of the American legal team, including citing the specific samples from Iceland which are now seriously called into question.

Other misleading elements can be found in the indictment, and later reflected in the Magistrate’s judgement, based on Thordarson’s now admitted lies. One is a reference to Icelandic bank documents. The Magistrate court judgement reads: “It is alleged that Mr. Assange and Teenager failed a joint attempt to decrypt a file stolen from a “NATO country 1” bank”.

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Thordarson admits to Stundin that this actually refers to a well publicised event in which an encrypted file was leaked from an Icelandic bank and assumed to contain information about defaulted loans provided by the Icelandic Landsbanki. The bank went under in the fall of 2008, along with almost all other financial institutions in Iceland, and plunged the country into a severe economic crisis. The file was at this time, in summer of 2010, shared by many online who attempted to decrypt it for the public interest purpose of revealing what precipitated the financial crisis. Nothing supports the claim that this file was even “stolen” per se, as it was assumed to have been distributed by whistleblowers from inside the failed bank.

More deceptive language emerges in the aforementioned judgment where it states: “...he [Assange] used the unauthorized access given to him by a source, to access a government website of NATO country-1 used to track police vehicles.”

This depiction leaves out an important element, one that Thordarson clarifies in his interview with Stundin. The login information was in fact his own and not obtained through any nefarious means. In fact, he now admits he had been given this access as a matter of routine due to his work as a first responder while volunteering for a search and rescue team. He also says Assange never asked for any such access.

Revealing chat logs​

Thordarson spoke with a journalist from Stundin for several hours as he prepared a thorough investigative report into his activities that include never before published chat logs and new documents.

The chat logs were gathered by Thordarson himself and give a comprehensive picture of his communications whilst he was volunteering for Wikileaks in 2010 and 11. It entails his talks with WikiLeaks staff as well as unauthorized communications with members of international hacking groups that he got into contact with via his role as a moderator on an open IRC WikiLeaks forum, which is a form of live online chat. There is no indication WikiLeaks staff had any knowledge of Thordarson’s contacts with aforementioned hacking groups, indeed the logs show his clear deception.

The communications there show a pattern where Thordarson is constantly inflating his position within WikiLeaks, describing himself as chief of staff, head of communications, No 2 in the organization or responsible for recruits. In these communications Thordarson frequently asks the hackers to either access material from Icelandic entities or attack Icelandic websites with so-called DDoS attacks. These are designed to disable sites and make them inaccessible but not cause permanent damage to content.

Stundin cannot find any evidence that Thordarson was ever instructed to make those requests by anyone inside WikiLeaks. Thordarson himself is not even claiming that, although he explains this as something Assange was aware of or that he had interpreted it so that this was expected of him. How this supposed non-verbal communication took place he cannot explain.

Furthermore, he never explained why WikiLeaks would be interested in attacking any interests in Iceland, especially at such a sensitive time while they were in the midst of publishing a huge trove of US diplomatic cables as part of an international media partnership. Assange is not known to have had any grievances with Icelandic authorities and was in fact working with members of parliament in updating Iceland’s freedom of press laws for the 21st century.

On the FBI radar​

Thordarson's rogue acts were not limited to communications of that nature as he also admits to Stundin that he set up avenues of communication with journalists and had media pay for lavish trips abroad where he mispresented himself as an official representative of WikiLeaks.

He also admits that he stole documents from WikiLeaks staff by copying their hard drives. Among those were documents from Renata Avila, a lawyer who worked for the organization and Mr. Assange.

Thordarson continued to step up his illicit activities in the summer of 2011 when he established communication with “Sabu”, the online moniker of Hector Xavier Monsegur, a hacker and a member of the rather infamous LulzSec hacker group. In that effort all indications are that Thordarson was acting alone without any authorization, let alone urging, from anyone inside WikiLeaks.

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Hector Xavier MonsegurA hacker and a member of the rather infamous LulzSec hacker group.

What Thordarson did not know at the time was that the FBI had arrested Sabu in the beginning of June 2011 and threatened him into becoming an informant and a collaborator for the FBI. Thus, when Thordarson continued his previous pattern of requesting attacks on Icelandic interests, the FBI knew and saw an opportunity to implicate Julian Assange.

Later that month a DDoS attack was performed against the websites of several government institutions.

That deed was done under the watchful eyes of the FBI who must have authorized the attack or even initiated it, as Sabu was at that point their man. What followed was an episode where it seems obvious that Icelandic authorities were fooled into cooperation under false pretenses.

Ögmundur Jónasson was minister of interior at time and as such the political head of police and prosecution and says of the US activities: “They were trying to use things here [in Iceland] and use people in our country to spin a web, a cobweb that would catch Julian Assange”.

“They were trying to use things here [in Iceland] and use people in our country to spin a web, a cobweb that would catch Julian Assange”
Ögmundur Jónasson
Jónasson recalls that when the FBI first contacted Icelandic authorities on June 20th 2011 it was to warn Iceland of an imminent and grave threat of intrusion against government computers. A few days later FBI agents flew to Iceland and offered formally to assist in thwarting this grave danger. The offer was accepted and on July 4th a formal rogatory letter was sent to Iceland to seal the mutual assistance.. Jónasson speculates that already then the US was laying the groundwork for its ultimate purpose, not to assist Iceland but entrap Julian Assange:

“What I have been pondering ever since is if the spinning of the web had already started then with the acceptance of the letter rogatory establishing cooperation that they could use as a pretext for later visits,” says Jónasson.

Icelandic policemen were sent to the US to gather further evidence of this so-called imminent danger and Jónasson says he does not recall anything of substance coming out of that visit and no further attacks were made against Icelandic interests.

But the FBI would return.

Icelandic officials deceived by the US​

Towards the end of August, Thordarson was being pursued by WikiLeaks staff who wished to locate the proceeds of online sales of WikiLeaks merchandise. It emerged Thordarson had instructed the funds be sent to his private bank account by forging an email in the name of Julian Assange.

Thordarson saw a way out and on August 23d he sent an email to the US Embassy in Iceland offering information in relation to a criminal investigation. He was replied to with a call and confirmed that he was offering to be an informant in the case against Julian Assange.

The prosecutors and FBI were quick in responding and within 48 hrs a private jet landed in Reykjavik with around eight agents who quickly set up meetings with Thordarson and with people from the Icelandic State Prosecutors office and the State Police Commissioner.

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Ögmundur JónassonFormer Iceland Minister of the Interior

Mid day, Mr. Jónasson, then Minister of Interior got wind of this new visit and requested confirmation that this related to the same case as earlier in the summer. “I asked on what rogatory letter this visit was based and if this was exactly the same case”, Jónasson says in an interview with Stundin. “I then found out that this was of a totally different nature than previously discussed”. He says he put two and two together and said it was obvious that the intention was to lay a trap in Iceland for Assange and other staff members of WikiLeaks.

Such actions were according to Jónasson way outside the scope of the agreement and thus he ordered that all cooperation with the agents be stopped and that they would be informed they were acting in Iceland without any authority. Only days later he learned that the agents and prosecutors had not yet left the country so the Ministry of Foreign Affairs contacted the US embassy with the demand they halt police work in Iceland and leave the country.

They did, but left with the new informant and “star witness”, Sigurdur Ingi Thordarson who flew with them to Denmark.

Not a hacker but a sociopath​

Thordarson has been nicknamed Siggi the hacker in Iceland. That is actually an antonym as several sources Stundin has talked to claim that Thordarson's computer ability is menial. This is supported by several chat logs and documents where he is requesting assistance from others doing rather uncomplicated computer jobs. Once he even sought FBI expert help in uploading a video from his own phone.

The meeting in Denmark was the first of a few where the FBI enthusiastically embraced the idea of co-operation with Thordarson. He says they wanted to know everything about WikiLeaks, including physical security of staff. They took material he had gathered, including data he had stolen from WikiLeaks employees and even planned to send him to England with a wire. Thordarson claimed in interviews he had refused that particular request. It was probably because he was not welcomed anymore as he knew WikiLeaks people had found out, or were about to firmly establish, that he had embezzled funds from the organization.

After months of collaboration the FBI seem to have lost interest. At about the same time charges were piling up against Thordarson with the Icelandic authorities for massive fraud, forgeries and theft on the one hand and for sexual violations against underage boys he had tricked or forced into sexual acts on the other.

After long investigations Thordarson was sentenced in 2013 and 2014 and received relatively lenient sentences as the judge took into account that he changed his plea at court and pleaded guilty to all counts.

According to a psychiatric assessment presented to the court Thordarson was diagnosed as a sociopath, incapable of remorse but still criminally culpable for his actions. He was assessed to be able to understand the basic difference between right and wrong, He just did not seem to care.

Incarceration did not seem to have an intended effect of stopping Thordarson from continuing his life of crime. It actually took off and expanded in extent and scope in 2019 when the Trump-era DoJ decided to revisit him, giving him a formal status as witness in the prosecution against Julian Assange and granting him immunity in return from any prosecution.

The New York Times Problem​

In the month following Assange's arrest in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London on April 11th 2019 a new rogatory letter arrived in the Ministry of Justice in Iceland. This time the request was to take a formal statement from Thordarson in Iceland in the presence of his lawyer. The Ministry had a new political head at the time, who had limited knowledge of the prior history of the case.

Although the Department of Justice had spent extreme resources attempting to build a case against Julian Assange during the Obama presidency, they had decided against indicting Assange. The main concern was what was called “The New York Times Problem”, namely that there was such a difficulty in distinguishing between WikiLeaks publications and NYT publications of the same material that going after one party would pose grave First Amendment concerns.


President Donald Trump's appointed Attorney general William Barr did not share these concerns, and neither did his Trump-appointed deputy Kellen S. Dwyer. Barr, who faced severe criticism for politicizing the DoJ on behalf of the president, got the ball rolling on the Assange case once again. Their argument was that if they could prove he was a criminal rather than a journalist the charges would stick, and that was where Thordarson’s testimony would be key.

In May 2019 Thordarson was offered an immunity deal, signed by Dwyer, that granted him immunity from prosecution based on any information on wrong doing they had on him. The deal, seen in writing by Stundin, also guarantees that the DoJ would not share any such information to other prosecutorial or law enforcement agencies. That would include Icelandic ones, meaning that the Americans will not share information on crimes he might have committed threatening Icelandic security interests – and the Americans apparently had plenty of those but had over the years failed to share them with their Icelandic counterparts.

In any event, Assange has never been suspected of any wrongdoing in Iceland. Stundin has seen confirmation of this from the District Prosecutor in Iceland, the Reykjavik Metropolitan Police. Assange has no entry in the LÖKE database of any police activity linked to an individual collected by the Icelandic State Police Commissioner from 2009-2021.

Assange's lawyer also inquired in the Icelandic Foreign Ministry if the points in his updated indictment where Iceland is referred to as NATO country 1 meant that his case had any relevance to Icelandic membership to NATO, the bilateral defense agreement between USA and Iceland or any national security interests. All such connections were dismissed in a reply from the defense attache at the Ministry.

Immunity and a new crimespree​

According to information obtained by Stundin the immunity deal between DoJ and Thordarson was presented at the Headquarters of the Reykjavik police where the only role of the Icelandic policeman was to confirm the identity of Thordarson before leaving him alone with his lawyer in the back room where he met the US delegation.

It is as if the offer of immunity, later secured and sealed in a meeting in DC, had encouraged Thordarson to take bolder steps in crime. He started to fleece individuals and companies on a grander scale than ever; usually by either acquiring or forming legal entities he then used to borrow merchandise, rent luxury cars, even order large quantities of goods from wholesalers without any intention to pay for these goods and services.

Thordarson also forged the name of his own lawyer on notices to the Company House registry, falsely claiming to have raised the equity of two companies to over 800 thousand US dollars. The aim was to use these entities with solid financial positions on paper in a real estate venture.

The lawyer has reported the forgery to the police where other similar cases, along with multiple other reports of theft and trickery, are now piling up.

When confronted with evidence of all these crimes by a Stundin journalist he simply admitted to everything and explained it away as normal business practice. He has not yet been charged and is still practicing this “business”. Local newspaper DV reported last week that Thordarson had attempted to order merchandise on credit using a new company name, Icelandic Vermin Control. Despite using a fake name and a COVID face mask he was identified and the transaction was stopped. He was last seen speeding away in a white Tesla, according to DV.

 

Julian Assange could be RELEASED from UK prison – major new Labour Party bid launched​

Some good news finally - let's wait and see.




Labour MP Richard Burgon is due to hand in a letter at Belmarsh prison about the ongoing refusal to allow a meeting with Mr Assange. The Labour MP will hand in a cross-party letter to UK's high-security Belmarsh prison on Tuesday, June 29. The letter concerns Belmarsh prison and the Justice Secretary's ongoing refusal to allow a meeting with Mr Assange.


Richard Burgon MP, who coordinated the letter from 20 parliamentarians from 4 parties said: "Julian Assange's case has huge implications for press freedoms in the UK and for the US-UK Extradition Treaty

"It's in the public interest that British Parliamentarians are able to discuss these issues with Julian Assange.

"That the authorities have repeatedly stopped an online meeting going ahead speaks volumes.

"The Justice Secretary and Prison Governor must now put a stop to their intransigence and allow it to go ahead without further delay"

Julian Assange could be released from Belmarsh prison after Labour initiative

Julian Assange could be released from Belmarsh prison after Labour initiative (Image: GETTY)
The full letter reads:

"Dear Governor,

"We are deeply concerned by the ongoing refusal of you and the Justice Secretary to allow an online video meeting between Julian Assange and a cross-party group of British parliamentarians.

"As you know Julian Assange is currently on remand in HMP Belmarsh, not for the violation of any UK law, but over extradition to the USA for his journalistic work carried out in the UK at the invitation of The Guardian and published in numerous leading newspapers worldwide.

"In the US, Julian Assange faces a prison sentence of up to 175 years, meaning he could spend the rest of his life in jail.

"This case has important implications for press and publishing freedoms in the UK and for the US-UK Extradition Treaty including its ban on extradition for political offences.

"We, therefore, believe it is vital that parliamentarians be allowed to discuss these important issues with interested parties. We are not making this request as private citizens but as British Parliamentarians deeply concerned by the potential consequences of this high-profile case.

"This could be permitted under the rules for Official Visits which state that there can be visits from “public officials whom the Governor permits to visit”.

"A cross-party group of parliamentarians first requested an online meeting in December 2020. It is simply unacceptable that six months on this simple request continues to be met with such intransigence.

"You have the authority to grant such a meeting and we call on you to facilitate an online meeting without further delay."
A demonstrator with a Julian Assange poster

A demonstrator with a Julian Assange poster (Image: GETTY)
Julian Assange timeline


The signatories of the letter were; Richard Burgon MP; Diane Abbott MP, Baroness Christine Blower, Ian Byrne MP, Jeremy Corbyn MP, Lord Bryn Davies, Neale Hanvey MP, Lord John Hendy, Ian Lavery MP, Caroline Lucas MP, Kenny MacAskill MP, John McDonnell MP, Ian Mearns MP, Grahame Morris MP, Bell Ribeiro-Addy MP, Tommy Sheppard MP, Lord Prem Sikka, Zarah Sultana MP, Claudia Webbe MP, Mick Whitley MP.

In January, a judge ruled that Mr Assange should not be extradited to face charges in the United States.

US authorities want Mr Assange to be extradited over the mass release of classified and confidential military cables from WikiLeaks.

UK District Judge Vanessa Baraitser said she was not satisfied that Mr Assange would be sufficiently protected from taking his own life if he was sent to the US.

She ruled: "Faced with the conditions of near-total isolation without the protective factors which limited his risk at HMP Belmarsh, I am satisfied the procedures described by the US will not prevent Mr Assange from finding a way to commit suicide and for this reason I have decided extradition would be oppressive by reason of mental harm and I order his discharge."
Julian Assange timeline (Image: Express)
 
Please I hope everyone can spare a few minutes out of their day and help to achieve justice for Julian Assange


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Assange Conviction CORRUPTION: Why This Affects YOU!!!​


Russell Brand
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The U.S. case against Julian Assange is falling apart, as key witness says he lied to get immunity. What is going on with the Assange story and what does it tell us about mainstream media and censorship?
 
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