QResear.ch

#21252088 at 2024-07-20 14:18:51 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #37: EVERYTHING IS AT STAKE Edition

#36 - Part 60
Julian Assange: Indictment, Extradition and Plea Deal - Part 1
>>20886492 WikiLeaks' Julian Assange faces U.S. extradition judgment day - A British court could give a final decision on Monday on whether WikiLeaks' founder Julian Assange should be extradited to the United States over the mass leak of secret U.S. documents, the culmination of 13 years of legal battles and detentions. Two judges at the High Court in LonDon are set to rule on whether the court is satisfied by U.S. assurances that Assange, 52, would not face the death penalty and could rely on the First Amendment right to free speech if he faced a U.S. trial for spying. Assange's legal team say he could be on a plane across the Atlantic within 24 hours of the decision, could be released from jail, or his case could yet again be bogged down in months of legal battles. "I have the sense that anything could happen at this stage," his wife Stella said last week. "Julian could be extradited, or he could be freed." She said her husband hoped to be in court for the crucial hearing.
>>20895103 Video: Julian Assange wins right to appeal US extradition - Julian Assange has won the right to appeal his extradition to the US to a full British appeals court. The significant legal win for the WikiLeaks founder came after the High Court judges ruled they were not satisfied that Assange, 53, would not face discrimination under the US Constitution's first amendment because of his Australian citizenship. But Assange, who was too ill to attend the court hearing at the Royal Courts of Justice in central LonDon, will face many more months in Belmarsh jail as a remand prisoner until the courts can find time for the full appeal to be heard. The two judges hearing the case said they had carefully considered the submissions in writing and orally. "We have decided to give leave to appeal,'' they said. Stella Assange said outside the court that the US administration "should drop these shameful charges immediately". She called for her husband's release saying that the ongoing legal battles was imposing a dreadful toll on his health. Mrs Assange said that as well as being immediately freed, her husband should receive compensation as well as the Nobel Peace Prize.

>>20903692 Video: Assange case shows world what US-style 'press freedom' means: Chinese FM - "The case of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange shows the world what US-style "freedom of the press" really is, said Wang Wenbin, spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, at a press briefing on Tuesday. Wang said the case shows the US believes exposure of other countries' secrets should be rewarded, but exposure of its own should be punished. The remarks came after Assange won a victory in his ongoing battle against extradition from the UK to the US, after the High Court in LonDon Granted him permission to appeal. Wang said freedom of the press, like so-called democratic human rights, is just a tool that the US uses to suppress dissidents and maintain its own hegemony. The spokesperson stated that Assange has won a round in his struggle against US hegemony, but whether he can ultimately emerge victorious in this contest remains to be seen. Assange, 52, is wanted by the US for allegedly disclosing national defense information following WikiLeaks's publication of hundreds of thousands of leaked military documents relating to the Afghanistan and Iraq wars a decade ago." - GT staff reporters - globaltimes.cn
>>21009247 Assange's UK appeal against US extradition to begin on July 9 - WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange's appeal against a UK court ruling that approved his extradition to the United States to face trial for breaking national security laws will begin on July 9, a judicial spokesman said Tuesday. Assange, 52, won his bid to challenge the ruling last month, and the two-day hearing will now take place at the High Court in LonDon next month. The Australian publisher is wanted by Washington for publishing hundreds of thousands of secret US documents from 2010 as head of the whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks. Had he lost at last month's hearing, Assange - who has become a figurehead for free speech campaigners - could have been swiftly extradited after a five-year legal battle.

#21251478 at 2024-07-20 12:53:18 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #36: BADGE OF HONOR Edition

#36 - Part 60
Julian Assange: Indictment, Extradition and Plea Deal - Part 1
>>20886492 WikiLeaks' Julian Assange faces U.S. extradition judgment day - A British court could give a final decision on Monday on whether WikiLeaks' founder Julian Assange should be extradited to the United States over the mass leak of secret U.S. documents, the culmination of 13 years of legal battles and detentions. Two judges at the High Court in LonDon are set to rule on whether the court is satisfied by U.S. assurances that Assange, 52, would not face the death penalty and could rely on the First Amendment right to free speech if he faced a U.S. trial for spying. Assange's legal team say he could be on a plane across the Atlantic within 24 hours of the decision, could be released from jail, or his case could yet again be bogged down in months of legal battles. "I have the sense that anything could happen at this stage," his wife Stella said last week. "Julian could be extradited, or he could be freed." She said her husband hoped to be in court for the crucial hearing.
>>20895103 Video: Julian Assange wins right to appeal US extradition - Julian Assange has won the right to appeal his extradition to the US to a full British appeals court. The significant legal win for the WikiLeaks founder came after the High Court judges ruled they were not satisfied that Assange, 53, would not face discrimination under the US Constitution's first amendment because of his Australian citizenship. But Assange, who was too ill to attend the court hearing at the Royal Courts of Justice in central LonDon, will face many more months in Belmarsh jail as a remand prisoner until the courts can find time for the full appeal to be heard. The two judges hearing the case said they had carefully considered the submissions in writing and orally. "We have decided to give leave to appeal,'' they said. Stella Assange said outside the court that the US administration "should drop these shameful charges immediately". She called for her husband's release saying that the ongoing legal battles was imposing a dreadful toll on his health. Mrs Assange said that as well as being immediately freed, her husband should receive compensation as well as the Nobel Peace Prize.

>>20903692 Video: Assange case shows world what US-style 'press freedom' means: Chinese FM - "The case of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange shows the world what US-style "freedom of the press" really is, said Wang Wenbin, spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, at a press briefing on Tuesday. Wang said the case shows the US believes exposure of other countries' secrets should be rewarded, but exposure of its own should be punished. The remarks came after Assange won a victory in his ongoing battle against extradition from the UK to the US, after the High Court in LonDon Granted him permission to appeal. Wang said freedom of the press, like so-called democratic human rights, is just a tool that the US uses to suppress dissidents and maintain its own hegemony. The spokesperson stated that Assange has won a round in his struggle against US hegemony, but whether he can ultimately emerge victorious in this contest remains to be seen. Assange, 52, is wanted by the US for allegedly disclosing national defense information following WikiLeaks's publication of hundreds of thousands of leaked military documents relating to the Afghanistan and Iraq wars a decade ago." - GT staff reporters - globaltimes.cn
>>21009247 Assange's UK appeal against US extradition to begin on July 9 - WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange's appeal against a UK court ruling that approved his extradition to the United States to face trial for breaking national security laws will begin on July 9, a judicial spokesman said Tuesday. Assange, 52, won his bid to challenge the ruling last month, and the two-day hearing will now take place at the High Court in LonDon next month. The Australian publisher is wanted by Washington for publishing hundreds of thousands of secret US documents from 2010 as head of the whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks. Had he lost at last month's hearing, Assange - who has become a figurehead for free speech campaigners - could have been swiftly extradited after a five-year legal battle.

#21094430 at 2024-06-27 11:16:30 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #36: BADGE OF HONOR Edition

>>20903692
>>21094264
Settling Assange's case helps US consolidate ties with Australia, strengthen small cliques in Asia-Pacific: expert

GT staff reporters - Jun 26, 2024

1/2

The curtain has closed on Julian Assange's saga as the WikiLeaks founder pleaded guilty to violating US espionage laws and walked out of court as a free man on Wednesday. Yet his case has exposed the hypocrisy of the US' long-flaunted freedom of speech and the ugliness of the country's relentless efforts to crush those who have "got in the way."

The US' gains from settling this high-profile case are multi-dimensional. Not only did the US intimidate people trying to expose US' dirty laundries, but it also removed one obstacle in its relationship with Australia, where Assange is from and where there has been advocacy for his release, observers noted. Consolidating coordination with Australia can help the US counter China's influence in the Western Pacific region through the creation of alliances, said experts.

Assange walked free on Wednesday from a court on the US Pacific island territory of Saipan after pleading guilty to violating US espionage law, in a deal that allowed him to head straight home to Australia, per Reuters.

His release ends a 14-year legal saga in which Assange spent more than five years in a British high-security jail and seven years in asylum at the Ecuadorean Embassy in LonDon battling extradition to Sweden on sexual assault allegations and to the US, where he faced 18 criminal charges.

Those charges stemmed from WikiLeaks' release in 2010 of hundreds of thousands of classified US military documents on Washington's wars in Afghanistan and Iraq - one of the largest breaches of secret information in US history.

During a three-hour hearing in Saipan, Assange pleaded guilty to only one criminal count of conspiring to obtain and disclose classified national defense documents but said he had believed the US Constitution's First Amendment, which protects free speech, shielded his activities.

"He [Assange] has suffered tremendously in his fight for free speech, for freedom of the press, and to ensure that the American public and the world community gets truthful and important newsworthy information," Assange's US lawyer Barry J Pollack said outside court in Saipan, Australian media reported.

The decades-long saga basically tells the world US political power can crush any form of freedom and legal terms, L? Xiang, a research fellow at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times.

Assange has endured a great deal over the past 14 years, yet his power and resources are too limited to effectively combat the US political machine, said L?. While Assange's guilty plea is unjust and unfortunate, his experiences, along with WikiLeaks, have further exposed the real US to the world.

The case of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange shows the world what US-style "freedom of the press" really is, said Wang Wenbin, then spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, at a press briefing in May.

Wang said the case shows the US believes exposure of other countries' secrets should be rewarded, but exposure of its own should be punished. The remarks came after Assange won a victory in his ongoing battle against extradition from the UK to the US, after the High Court in LonDon Granted him permission to appeal.

(continued)

#20903692 at 2024-05-23 11:05:45 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #36: BADGE OF HONOR Edition

>>20895103
Assange case shows world what US-style 'press freedom' means: Chinese FM

GT staff reporters - May 22, 2024

The case of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange shows the world what US-style "freedom of the press" really is, said Wang Wenbin, spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, at a press briefing on Tuesday.

Wang said the case shows the US believes exposure of other countries' secrets should be rewarded, but exposure of its own should be punished. The remarks came after Assange won a victory in his ongoing battle against extradition from the UK to the US, after the High Court in LonDon Granted him permission to appeal.

Wang said freedom of the press, like so-called democratic human rights, is just a tool that the US uses to suppress dissidents and maintain its own hegemony.

The spokesperson stated that Assange has won a round in his struggle against US hegemony, but whether he can ultimately emerge victorious in this contest remains to be seen.

Assange, 52, is wanted by the US for allegedly disclosing national defense information following WikiLeaks's publication of hundreds of thousands of leaked military documents relating to the Afghanistan and Iraq wars a decade ago.

These included Apache helicopter video footage of the US military gunning down journalists and children in the streets of Baghdad in 2007, the Xinhua News Agency reported.

Assange's backers celebrated upon hearing the court's decision. Although he was absent from court on Monday due to health issues, his wife Stella was among those present.

"The judges reached the right decision… As a family we are relieved, but how long can this go on? The US should read the situation and drop this case now. Now is the moment to do it. Just abanDon the shameful attack on journalists, on the press and on the public," Stella Assange was quoted as saying by Xinhua News Agency while she talked to supporters outside the High Court.

The 52-year-old was not in court Monday on health grounds, and an NPR report said that if judges determine that he would not receive the same legal safeguards in a US court as he would under the British legal system, it might eventually result in his release.

Assange's case reveals the fact that policies formulated by elites in the US are not based on the well-being of the country and the people. Instead, they serve narrow, short-sighted, and special interest groups and classes, Li HaiDong, a professor at the China Foreign Affairs University, told the Global Times on Tuesday.

This is also why Assange, who exposes and reveals the truth, faces the danger of being extradited to the US, Li said.

Permission for extradition would be Granted if the US government could demonstrate that Assange, an Australian citizen, would not face bias during the trial based on his nationality and would receive the same legal protections as a US citizen. Additionally, the US authorities have to guarantee that Assange would not face the death penalty if found guilty, media reports said.

It can be expected that the US will continue to hunt Assange in order to set an example and prevent other people from revealing the truth about the dirty policies of the US government, Chinese experts predicted.

https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202405/1312763.shtml

https://www.fmprc.gov.cn/eng/xwfw_665399/s2510_665401/2511_665403/202405/t20240521_11309207.html

https://x.com/wikileaks/status/1793285747870486924