Julian Assange's extradition from UK to US approved by home secretary
Priti Patel has approved the extradition of the WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange to the US, a decision the organisation immediately said it would appeal against in the high court.
The case passed to the home secretary last month after the supreme court ruled there were no legal questions over assurances given by US authorities over how Assange was likely to be treated.
While Patel has given a green light, WikiLeaks immediately released a statement to say it would appeal against the decision.
"Today is not the end of fight," it said. "It is only the beginning of a new legal battle. We will appeal through the legal system; the next appeal will be before the high court."
Also at NYT.
(Score: 2) by srobert on Monday June 20 2022, @03:14PM (8 children)
"Journalism is protected by the first amendment."
That implies that Assange is protected by the first amendment. But that's rubbish. The first amendment to the U.S. Constitiuton only applies to those within the borders of the U.S. Foreigners in foreign lands have no such rights or protections against being prosecuted (or persecuted) by the United States government. For precedent I site the prison at Guantanamo Bay. Assange is not an American, and was not within the U.S. when he committed his heinous crimes. The evidence before the court is incontrovertible. There's no need for the jury to retire. In all my years of judging I have never heard before of someone more deserving of the full penalty of law. ...It fills me with the urge to defecate!
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Monday June 20 2022, @03:41PM (5 children)
They had to define a whole new class of enemy soldier to pull off Guantanamo...
As of now he is just a normal foreigner who committed a crime against a US entity. This is a well established and very common occurrence for countries with extradition treaties.
(Score: 2) by srobert on Monday June 20 2022, @03:52PM (4 children)
"As of now he is just a normal foreigner who committed a crime against a US entity."
Exactly! Journalism when committed by foreigners in foreign lands may be deemed a crime, and not protected by the 1st amendment. Although, the warning will extend to Americans that such "acts of journalism" will not be tolerated when committed by them either.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Monday June 20 2022, @04:01PM (3 children)
I don't know why it's so hard for people to understand what he's actually being charged with but here it is directly from the indicment:
Maybt it'll stick, maybe it won't, but he is no longer merely being charged with reporting information he was provided.
(Score: 2) by srobert on Monday June 20 2022, @06:23PM (2 children)
Yes, those are ostensibly the "official" charges. But those charges only exist to whitewash the true source of animosity that the MIC has for Assange and the reason behind his prosecution, i.e. for exposing the actions and the attitude of American military personnel while they were killing innocent civilians.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Monday June 20 2022, @06:39PM (1 child)
It is possible to expose government misdeeds and also commit a crime.
You don't get to say "I'm just a journalist" when you are personally doing the hacking.
It is now up to the DOJ to convince a jury that he personally did the hacking. No shadowy conspiracies required....
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 20 2022, @11:33PM
a jury of Windows, ipad and Facebook users...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 20 2022, @09:07PM (1 child)
American's ignorance of their own Constitution is astounding.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 21 2022, @08:42PM
Yeah, nowhere in the first amendment does it say it only applies to US citizens. It is a restriction upon the government, whether it wants to go after US citizens or non-citizens.