Activist adding placards near a big banner with a photo of Julian Assange with his mouth strapped with the US flag. The banner reads "Free Assange, No Extradition." Photo: Reuters/Henry Nicholls.
May 22, 2022 (OrinocoTribune.com)—The European Human Rights Commission has called on the government of the United Kingdom not to extradite Julian Assange, founder-director of Wikileaks, to the United States.
In a letter published last Monday, May 18, the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Dunja Mijatovič, asked UK Home Secretary Priti Patel not to allow the extradition of the imprisoned journalist to the US, where he faces a potential sentence of 175 years in prison. The letter, dated May 10, 2022, is addressed directly to the home secretary of the United Kingdom.
The decision about the extradition lies with Patel, after the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom rejected Assange’s request to appeal his extradition in March. Patel has to announce her decision by May 31.
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Regarding the entire legal procedure, the European Human Rights Commissioner expressed her dissatisfaction, stating that “the wider human rights implications of Mr. Assange’s possible extradition… have not been adequately considered so far,” and that the trial was focused only on Assange’s “personal circumstances.”
Mijatovič also expressed concern about the safety of journalists in view of the US indictment to criminalize the publication of “classified information in the public interest, including information that exposes human rights violations.” “The broad and vague nature of the allegations against Mr. Assange, and of the offenses listed in the indictment, are troubling as many of them concern activities at the core of investigative journalism in Europe and beyond,” wrote Mijatovič.
In view of these implications, Mijatovič concluded that allowing Assange’s extradition on the basis of the US indictment “would have a chilling effect on media freedom, and could ultimately hamper the press in performing its task as purveyor of information and public watchdog in democratic societies.”
The European Human Rights Commissioner had expressed the same opinion about Assange’s extradition to the US in a public statement in February 2020, where she stated that the Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights prohibits “extradition to a situation in which the person involved would be at real risk of torture or inhuman or degrading treatment.” In this respect she referred to the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, Nils Melzer, who has repeated many times that the prison treatment that Assange has received in the UK amounts to torture, and that detention conditions in the US would have a more severe impact on Assange’s physical and mental health.
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The European Human Rights Commissioner joins a growing list of human rights groups and individuals demanding freedom for Assange, including mainstream organizations like Reporters Without Borders and Amnesty International.
Commenting on Mijatovič’s latest statement, Carlos Poveda, Julian Assange’s lawyer in Ecuador, expressed optimism that the journalist may not be extradited to the United States. “It is not a crime to verify and expose atrocious crimes committed by powerful states,” Poveda said, and considered that the European Commissioner’s letter supports this view.
Nevertheless, many journalists and activists are not so optimistic, as Priti Patel has smeared Assange for over a decade, and has been part of a lobby group funded by the CIA, the same US intelligence agency that has persecuted Assange, spied on him during his stay at the Ecuadorian embassy in London, and even developed plans to assassinate him.
However, according to former British diplomat and one of Assange’s staunchest supporters, Craig Murray, even if Patel authorizes the extradition, Assange cannot be sent directly to the US. The journalist would be eligible to appeal to the High Court, and a new legal process would begin, in which Assange can argue on the “wider implications” regarding human rights and freedom of the press, the very points that according to Mijatovič have not been discussed.
Featured image: Activist adding placards near a big banner with a photo of Julian Assange with his mouth strapped with the US flag. The banner reads “Free Assange, No Extradition.” Photo: Reuters/Henry Nicholls.
Special for Orinoco Tribune by Saheli Chowdhury
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Saheli Chowdhury
Saheli Chowdhury is from West Bengal, India, studying physics for a profession, but with a passion for writing. She is interested in history and popular movements around the world, especially in the Global South. She is a co-editor and contributor for Orinoco Tribune.
