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The UK Home Secretary Sajid Javid has signed off on the extradition of Julian Assange to the United States, reports El Reg.
Javid's certifying of the US extradition request lodged this week is the first formal step in having Assange sent across the pond. The next phase is tomorrow, when Belmarsh Magistrates' Court will set a date for a full extradition hearing. After that, assuming a district judge (full-time professional magistrate) OKs the extradition, Javid himself will make the final decision on whether or not to send the one-time chief WikiLeaker to America, as UK.gov's website explains. It is almost certain Assange will file an appeal to the High Court after the district judge's ruling, and again (as the law allows) after the Home Secretary's final decision.
In the US, Assange will face charges of violating espionage law.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 13 2019, @08:49PM (11 children)
See the linked comment above. 18 USC 793.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by tangomargarine on Thursday June 13 2019, @08:54PM (10 children)
Assange is an Australian citizen. Why do we give a crap what the U.K. thinks about the matter?
Although from the Wikipedia article the Australian PM sounds like a spineless twat as well.
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 13 2019, @09:36PM
Because he is currently in custody in the UK, and soon to be in the grasp of the US rendition team.
(Score: 3, Touché) by DeathMonkey on Thursday June 13 2019, @09:38PM (5 children)
Yet another novel legal theory....
Committing a crime in the UK, while Australian, gives you immunity.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 14 2019, @04:34AM (3 children)
Correction: committing an American crime while in the UK while Australian means... well, jack squat, really.
He's not American. He wasn't in the US at the time he embarrassed Americans. Embarrassing the American military wasn't a crime anywhere outside the US at the time he did it. What he did do was show the world Americans committing crimes, so why hasn't something been done about that?
Oh wait; right: shoot the messenger. It's the way of the rich, powerful, and/or politically connected in the US. It's why whistleblowers get persecuted rather than celebrated.
(Score: -1, Redundant) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 14 2019, @10:54AM (2 children)
Because MAGA. That's why, motherfucker!
Now shut the fuck up and buy more Trump products or we'll tariff your ass to death!
What are you, from one of those Mexican countries?
USA! USA! USA!
#MAGA Trump 2020! Because we're not going to be the world's bitch anymore!*
*Just Russia and North Korea's. That Putin is so handsome! And he's got a huge cock!
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Friday June 14 2019, @12:37PM (1 child)
It's not a MAGA issue. This effort to get Assange began under Obama. But that's not to say it's an Obama issue, either. Rather, it's an Establishment/1%/Deep State/UniParty/whatever-label-you-prefer issue that is far above the pay grade of any political party or administration.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 14 2019, @12:53PM
Why do you hate America?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 14 2019, @05:49PM
Fun possible factoid (as it came from an ex-polis, it might be true, but he's a tricky fucker....so who knows)
Back in the days before ANPR, Aussies used to get off the planes at Heathrow, head to a bunch of car dealers/scrappers helpfully listed in some Aussie guide to the UK, buy a clapped out runner-but-banger for next to nothing, then drive about in it...no tax, MOT, insurance etc.
The police would stop them, take one look at the Aussie Driving license and/or passport, go 'life's too short..' and let them go on to be SEFP..
So yes, at one point, being an Aussie gave you a degree of immunity from prosecution for certain classes of crime in the UK.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Thursday June 13 2019, @09:55PM
All Aussie political heads would sound exactly the same.
For [smh.com.au] reasons [economist.com] (google search china south pacific influence [google.com])
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 13 2019, @10:06PM
Because generally in extradition law the crime a person is extradited for must be a crime in both the jurisdiction of prosecution and the jurisdiction where the individual currently is. If conspiracy to commit espionage was not a crime under UK law then the extradition might be nullified on those grounds. A similar, but not quite related, element is where countries without the death penalty will not extradite someone for a crime where the death penalty might apply without reassurance that it will not be applied in such a case. Thus part of the extradition proceeding (dunno if it was this part but I'd guess so) is to establish those facts.
Happy to assist your fund of knowledge.
(Score: 4, Informative) by fido_dogstoyevsky on Friday June 14 2019, @01:28AM
He is, where the US is concerned. He's also trying to raise the art of boot licking to previously unimagined heights.
It's NOT a conspiracy... it's a plot.