As divisive WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange faces a hearing in the United Kingdom court, which could determine whether he will be extradited to face espionage charges in the U.S., calls have grown for him to be pardoned.
[RELATED: Major News Outlets Call on U.S. to Drop Charges Against Wikileaks’ Julian Assange…]
“The fallout from prosecuting Assange could extend beyond the Espionage Act and beyond national security journalism. It could enable prosecution of routine newsgathering under any number of ambiguous laws and untested legal theories,” said a coalition of 35 law professors in a letter to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland.
Assange has faced U.S. charges under the Espionage Act, which would allow him to be prosecuted for obtaining, possessing, and publishing “national defense information.”
The U.S. Indictment accuses Assange of recruiting sources and soliciting classified information through WikiLeaks.
WikiLeaks has a long history of publishing classified information, much of which shone a negative light on the United States, such as the controversial video entitled “Collateral Murder,” which showed U.S. forces gunning down civilians in Iraq.
The group of law professors raised alarms that the prosecution of Assange under the Espionage Act could lead to the persecution of other journalists.
Legally, journalists are permitted to publish classified information without fear of prosecution if they did not acquire the information illegally, even if the source who originally provided the information did.
The professors argued that, historically, journalists have recruited sources, and published classified information as a matter of course in investigative journalism.
They argued that prosecuting Assange would be an attack on First Amendment rights.
Independent Presidential Candidate Robert F. Kennedy joined the discussion with calls for a presidential pardon of Assange.
“He’s a heroic whistleblower who stood up for democracy and against the surveillance state. It’s time we stood up for Julian Assange the way he stood up for us,” said Kennedy.
One U.K. Judge, Vanessa Baraitser, ruled in 2021 that Assange could not be extradited, as she feared that extradition could lead to Assange’s suicide, because she believed that he would be held in the ADX Florence maximum security prison in Colorado, which has held high-profile terrorist prisoners.
Baraister’s ruling was eventually overthrown, leaving Assange once again with the prospect of life in a maximum security U.S. prison.
U.K. courts will hold two days of hearings, on Tuesday and Wednesday, in order to determine whether he will be eligible to appeal his extradition.
<span class="dsq-postid" data-dsqidentifier="25758 https://www.themainewire.com/?p=25758">1 Comment
Well, it’s about freaking time. When foreign nationals who’ve never set foot in the U.S. can be jailed for saying true things about what our regressive tax dollars are funding, it doesn’t bode well for the rest of us peons, either.