WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange had a hearing in London today to decide if he would even be allowed to make an appeal of Britain’s decision to extradite him to the U.S. British authorities have held him without charge, mainly in solitary confinement, in HM Prison Belmarsh maximum security prison since 2019. Even though Assange had asked to appear in court in person, his lawyers explained today that he was “too ill” to attend. Assange’s troubles with Anglo-American circles began with his exposure of war crimes in Iraq in 2010/11.
Stella Assange, his wife, addressed dozens of demonstrators outside of London’s Royal Courts of Justice today. “The world is watching,” she said, adding that the U.S. was abusing the system to “hound, prosecute and intimidate” Assange. She also reminded the assembled that the U.S. had “plotted to murder” her husband, referring to revelations that the CIA, in particular under the pompous Mike Pompeo, sought to kill Assange in 2017. (Given the animus in some parts of the Anglo-American intelligence layers, there is little reason to believe that he would be treated properly in U.S. courts or prisons.) Stella made clear a central point: “What’s at stake is the ability to publish the truth and expose crimes when they’re committed by states.”
Assange’s release from British captivity had been called for by Australia’s parliament, as Assange is a native of Australia. It passed a motion to that effect, but it has fallen on deaf ears in the U.K.
