The High Court’s ruling paves Assange’s way to a US trial following ‘assurances’ he will not be mistreated. But the US has been persecuting Assange for a decade after he exposed its war crimes.
By Jonathan Cook: On Friday, the English High Court paved the way for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to be extradited to the United States and tried over the publication of hundreds of thousands of documents, some of which contained evidence of US and British war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan.The decision reversed a ruling in January by a lower court that had blocked the extradition, but only on humanitarian grounds: that Assange would be put at severe risk of suicide by the oppressive conditions of his detention in the US.
The 50-year old Australian faces a sentence of up to 175 years in prison if found guilty.
'The English courts have now clearly giving their assent to political persecution. The precedent means anyone in the UK could now be dragged to the US for prosecution should they cause Washington sufficient embarrassment.'