Lawyers and relatives of Asanza promise to appeal the verdict and call it an attack on democratic values and freedom of the press.
In the United States, he faces up to 175 years in prison
The epic of publishing Wikileaks founder Julia Asanz in the United States has been going on for more than 10 years. As a result of WikiLeaks publishing thousands of leaked military and diplomatic documents on operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, Asanza has been charged with a total of 18 different charges of violating U.S. anti-espionage laws. If proven guilty, he would face up to 175 years in prison.
Although Asanze hid in the Ecuadorian embassy in London for seven years, avoiding extradition to Sweden, he has been in Belmars Prison for more than two years, awaiting a US extradition trial.
The lower court had previously ruled that Asanza was suicidal and his mental health was too fragile to stand trial in the United States.
However, U.S. prosecutors appealed the ruling, stressing that the court had not taken into account the opinions of other experts about Asanza’s health condition, and that the United States had issued diplomatic assurances that Asanze would not be held in strict federal prison and would receive all necessary care.
11 years in captivity
That’s why the London Court of Appeal overturned the lower court’s ruling on Friday, opening the door to extradition to Asanza in the United States. The final decision must be approved by the British Home Secretary.
Meanwhile, the Asanza defense team has already said it has two weeks to appeal the verdict to the UK Supreme Court. Stanz Morris, the wife of Asanza, also deplored today’s verdict, promising to continue the fight.
‘He has been detained in one way or another since 7 December 2010. They are 11 years old. How long can this last? Today is International Human Rights Day … It’s a shame that this cynical verdict was delivered today!
“The United Kingdom has imprisoned journalists, imprisoned Julien on the orders of another country that is abusively and retaliatively trying to convict a journalist. That is why the issue of freedom of the press and democracy is at stake. We will continue to fight! Every generation has a historic struggle, and this is ours. Julien is a symbol of what it means to live in a free society. ”
Russia condemns the decision of the British court
Russia has commented on the British court’s ruling in a peculiar way. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova called the case a shameful political lawsuit against a journalist and a public figure and could be seen as an expression of the Anglo-Saxon Alliance’s cannibalistic vision of the world.
The Western press recalls that Russia was once accused of hacking and handing over the data of WilarLeaks’ campaign to the US presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. The human rights organization Amnesty International has also expressed concern about the guarantees promised by the United States because they seem unreliable.
CONTEXT:
2020 In February, a British court began to look US claim to release Julian Asanz, founder of WikiLeaks website.
Asanze is in custody in London because of British police Detained in April 2019 and took him from the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where he had spent seven years.
This happened after the President of Ecuador Lenin Moreno revoked the diplomatic protection granted to Asanz.
In April, the United States filed a first indictment against Assan for colluding with former U.S. Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Menning in 2010 to hack passwords on Defense Department computers.
He was later raised 17 new charges for violating U.S. espionage law by obtaining and publishing classified information in 2010.
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