2023-07-11 21:25:32
The risk of an imminent extradition of Julian Assange is higher than ever. On June 6, the High Court of the United Kingdom rejected an appeal filed by the defenders of the founder of Wikileaks.
A final legal remedy is still open at the national level. In the event of a new rejection by the judges, there would then only remain a referral to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).
With an unknown: will British justice grant suspensive effect, as case law seems to indicate, or, as a faithful lackey of the United States, will it deliver its cumbersome prisoner without further ado?
The case is serious. Beyond his state of health degraded by years of confinement and harassment, Julian Assange will not be entitled to a fair trial across the Atlantic. What to expect from the United States, which even mounted an operation to assassinate him in the Ecuadorian embassy where he had taken refuge for seven years?
The Espionage Act, under which the judges of Uncle Sam’s country decided to prosecute him, dates from 1917, it is written in general and vague terms. Any journalist could be prosecuted. The media that have been fed from the documents disseminated by Wikileaks could just as much be charged for having revealed a whole series of crimes, such as the assassination by the American army of two journalists from the Archyde.com agency.
Initially, Julian Assange faced the death penalty; now he risks “only” 175 years in prison. On Monday, the Swiss Press Club and the Courage Foundation fortunately organized a communication operation by opening the microphone to Stella Moris-Assange, the lawyer but also the wife of the whistleblower. This after a similar mobilization a year ago.
The world of the media is realizing, perhaps a little belatedly, that beyond the Assange case, it is indeed freedom of the press, democracy and human rights that are in question. And when it comes to defending these fundamental values, it is important not to cede an inch of ground to an enemy – the United States, for once – which willingly places itself as a self-proclaimed defender of the free world but which does not hesitate to trample these fundamental values when its interests are harmed.
A reminder that should be kept in mind at a time when a binary logic that seems to be inherited from the Cold War prevails. In this bipolar world, recalling democratic foundations is more necessary than ever when the boundaries between the good guys and the bad guys are disturbingly blurred.
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