Julian Assange escapes extradition to the United States, but for how long?

The worst has not (yet) happened: the High Court in London has allowed Julian Assange to challenge his extradition to the United States before the British Supreme Court, blocking his forced flight to a country where he faces up to 175 years from prison. However, the latter will not be able to appeal directly to the Supreme Court, which will have to decide whether or not to accept his appeal. Suffice to say that if the politico-legal soap opera is not over, the threat remains intact.

Julian Assange is facing a ludicrous charge of “espionage” for having disseminated, from 2010, more than 700,000 classified documents on the war crimes committed by the United States around the world, in particular in Iraq and Afghanistan. The facts reported are not disputed, the methods used are those of all whistleblowers, but the one who is at the origin of the revelations has become a target to be shot down.

A target to shoot down

Hunted by CIA sleuths, this 49-year-old Australian was arrested by British police in London in April 2019, after seven years behind the walls of the Ecuadorian diplomatic representation, where he had taken refuge for fear of a manu militari extradition to the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. We first tried to mount a rape charge against him in Sweden, which did not hold water. But the United States has never let go of its prey, eager to set an example and show the world that it is, to say the least, perilous to denounce its methods.

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The long march towards the inevitable was temporarily slowed down a year ago, when British justice invoked the physical and mental degradation of the prisoner, locked up in a high security prison near London. Judge Vanessa Baraitser then mentioned a risk of suicide. But that did not prevent the emissaries of the American government from returning to the charge by assuring that if he were extradited, the whistleblower would be treated with small onions, almost like a distinguished guest. The important thing for them is to get their hands on the claimant, as if he were a drug baron, in order to silence him forever.

The great forgotten

Edward Snowden knows something about it. This NSA whistleblower revealed the extent of America’s web of spying on whoever they want, including their own allies, be they heads of state or politicians high level. At the end of an incredible expedition, Edward Snowden is now a refugee in Moscow, from where he keeps repeating that he has asked for political asylum in a number of European Union countries, which have abandoned him. in the middle of the taiga.

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Julian Assange has also taken steps in this direction, in particular vis-à-vis France, a country whose current Minister of Justice, Éric Dupond-Moretti, was one of his lawyers. About forty deputies from all political backgrounds have still made a request for political asylum for the recluse of London. The only response was persistent silence. No official voice has dared to mention the fate reserved for a freedom fighter who risks ending his life behind bars, like a terrorist.

When it comes to Alexandre Navalny, imprisoned in Russia, the protests multiply, and no one will complain. But when it comes to the founder of WikiLeaks, once considered the living symbol of the freedom of the press, heads bow, eyes flee, and block them close, to believe that the great principles are at variable geometry. In view of the decision of the High Court in London, it is time for some to regain a forgotten dignity.

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