SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-68662881
The US must provide assurances that Julian Assange will not receive the death penalty if convicted, before a UK court rules on whether he can appeal against his extradition.
The court has adjourned its decision by three weeks to give the US government time to comply.
US authorities say the Wikileaks founder endangered lives by publishing thousands of classified documents.
His lawyers have argued that the case is form of "state retaliation".
In a High Court judgment on Tuesday, Dame Victoria Sharp and Mr Justice Johnson said that Mr Assange would be able to bring an appeal on three grounds, unless assurances were given by the United States.
These assurances are that the 52-year-old would be protected by and allowed to rely on the First Amendment - which protects freedom of speech in the US; that he would not be "prejudiced at trial" due to his nationality; and that he would not face the death penalty if he is convicted.
Judges have given the US authorities three weeks to make those assurances, with a final hearing potentially taking place on 20 May.
"If assurances are not given then we will grant leave to appeal without a further hearing," said Dame Victoria in the court's ruling.
"If assurances are given then we will give the parties an opportunity to make further submissions before we make a final decision on the application for leave to appeal."
See also: Julian Assange faces further wait over extradition ruling
(Score: 1, Redundant) by RamiK on Thursday March 28 2024, @10:55AM
Between how Huawei's CFO Meng Wanzhou arrest and extradition imploded* and the lengths Mike Pompeo went about to try and justify assassinating Assange [wikipedia.org], I think it's pretty clear the US is perpetually one elections away from voting in people who just don't give a damn about justice or the laws and there's little to no executive, judicial or congressional effective oversight for their actions.
Look, anything colored "national security" in the US isn't going to be perfectly legal. You have secret courts rubber stumping anything from surveillance to assassinations over the phone. You have academics and business men falsely charged since they happen to work in the wrong field/industry. You have quick fix special laws to handle one company or the next where a proper regulatory action should have been in place. Behind most of these there's legitimate calls for actions causes that end up as legal clusterfucks means that, on a case-by-case basis, just don't justify themselves. Assange's case is a particularly thorny mess involving war crimes and a documented history of "creative" prosecutor conduct that leaves real concerns on whether he'll get a fair trial. The UK court is simply asking for simple assurances to cover their own ass on this matter. It's only a matter of weeks before the due date for the US response so we'll know for sure soon.
* Still waiting for someone to come forward with evidence showing Huawei was involved in espionage...
compiling...