The WikiLeaks legal team
has a strong case to throw out Assange’s extradition request after the
government that wants him extradited got hold of surveillance video of his
privileged attorney-client conversations.
If this were a normal legal
case, WikiLeaks’ lawyers would almost certainly be able to get the
extradition request by the United States for their client Julian Assange thrown
out on the grounds that his privileged conversations with his lawyers at
Ecuador’s London embassy were secretly videotaped.
The very nation that
wants him extradited to stand trial in Virginia has obtained
access to those videos. In a normal extradition case it would be hard
to imagine Britain sending a suspect to a country whose government has already
eavesdropped on that suspect’s defense preparations.
But this is not a normal legal
case.
“The Case should be thrown out
immediately. Not only is it illegal on the face of the treaty, the U.S. has
conducted illegal operations against Assange and his lawyers which are the
subject of a major investigation in Spain,” WikiLeaks Editor-In-Chief
Kristinn Hrafnsson said on Monday as the imprisoned Assange appeared before
a judge in magistrate’s court in London.
“I don’t understand how this
is equitable,” Assange told the court. “This superpower had 10 years to prepare
for this case and I can’t access my writings. It’s very difficult where I am to
do anything but these people have unlimited resources…They are saying
journalists and whistleblowers are enemies of the people. They have unfair
advantages dealing with documents. They [know] the interior of my life with my
psychologist” as the CIA presumably obtained videos of those conversations as
well. Assange was then packed off in a van back to his dreary cell at
Belmarsh prison.
This is a travesty of justice
on many levels.
The existence of Section E of
the 1917 Espionage Act, which technically incriminates the unauthorized
possession and dissemination of U.S. classified material by anyone,
anywhere in the world, effectively criminalizes investigative journalism
and is a travesty that must be challenged on First Amendment grounds.
And now a defendant’s rights
to a fair trial here in Virginia have been seriously undermined, indeed
practically nullified, after his conversations with his attorneys came into the
possession of the government that wants to prosecute him.
But this is not about justice.
This is about revenge.
No case better illustrates
just how corruptly powerful the U.S. and British intelligence services and
militaries have become, as well as the justice system of both nations, which
defend those corrupt interests.
No case better illustrates how
those powerful interests are protected by the legal system in punishing the man
who did most to expose their crimes to a public, a public rendered apathetic by
an Establishment media that has distracted them and presented Assange as an
enemy of the people.
No case better illustrates how
the U.S. and Britain, together carrying out illegal mass surveillance and
unending war, are clinging to a mere pretense of democracy.
That pretense is being
imperiled by the adjudication of this case.
If both governments care in
the very least about maintaining an appearance of following the rule of
law, it has this opportunity: Let Julian Assange go.
No comments:
Post a Comment