[ad_1]
Julian Assange could be extradited to face espionage charges in the US, the British high court ruled today, overturning a counterclaim earlier this year.
The wife of the founder of the US military’s abuse disclosure network, WikiLeaks, said today that she would appeal the decision, while the rights group Amnesty International called it an ‘alienation of justice’.
The decision is a blow to Assange’s efforts to avoid extradition to the US, which risks being placed there under conditions of harsh isolation and torture.
The British court said it based its decision on assurances given by the American side that the accused would not be held in severe pre-trial regime unless he commits offenses that make them necessary.
But critics say U.S. guarantees provide no assurance.
Judge Lord Burnett said: “We have been provided with satisfactory guarantees which have influenced our decision. “Our conclusions were sufficient to decide in favor of the United States.”
But Assange’s fiancée, Stella Moris, said the court ruling was “dangerous and reckless” and a “misinterpretation of justice.”
“How can this be right, to extradite Julian exactly to the country that conspired to kill him?” she said.
The case against the 49-year-old concerns the publication of his WikiLeaks network of millions of secret US military documents on military abuses in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as diplomatic communications in 2010 and 2011.
The head of Amnesty International for Europe, Nils Muižnieks, said: “In its decision, the court has accepted deeply incomplete diplomatic assurances that Assange will not be held in solitary confinement in a high-security prison.”
“If extradited to the US, Julian Assange will be tried under the Espionage Act and risks serious human rights abuses that amount to torture.”
top channel
[ad_2]
Source link
