Edward Snowden declares UK cannot extradite Julian Assange to US due to political nature of charges

Moscow, February 20 (EFE).- The United Kingdom cannot extradite the founder of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, to the United States, because the crime he is accused of is of a political nature and this contradicts the extradition agreements in force between London and Washington, he declared. this Tuesday the former CIA analyst who has taken refuge in Russia, Edward Snowden.

“The scandalous thing about the ‘trial’ that has been going on for years in the United Kingdom to condemn Julian Assange to die in an American dungeon is that the victim of his ‘crime’ (journalism) is a State and not a person,” he wrote. on social network X.

For this reason, he added, the case opened against Assange is political, and in addition the extradition treaty between the US and the United Kingdom “explicitly prohibits” the surrender of political prisoners, he wrote on the social network X.

Snowden, who has lived in Russia since revealing details of American spy programs in 2013, criticized those who condemn the death of the Russian opposition leader, Alexei Navalny, while remaining silent about Assange.

“To all the political leaders and journalists who speak out and write speeches: you can no longer save Navalny. But you can still save Assange. If you remain silent now, when you can really influence the result, then you never defended the principles and only expected applause. “, he concluded.

The former American analyst, who received Russian citizenship and whose whereabouts are unknown, has maintained silence about the war in Ukraine and Navalny’s death.

This Tuesday and Wednesday Assange’s fate will be decided in London in a process that will decide whether he has the right to continue appealing or if he will be extradited to the United States.

The Australian’s lawyers, who could not appear in person today due to health problems, pointed out that the discovery of a CIA plot to kidnap or kill their client when he was taking refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy in London (between 2012 and 2019) demonstrates the political motivation of the case.

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“Extraditing Assange would mean handing him directly into the hands of the same people who conspired to murder him,” argued his legal team, who wants the judges to admit that plot as evidence.

In addition, the defense of the founder of WikiLeaks said this Tuesday that his client cannot be extradited to the United States because “the crimes charged are of a political nature,” which would violate the British-American Extradition Treaty of 2003.

(c) EFE Agency

2024-02-21 01:44:22
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