Julian Assange: “zero hour” is approaching for the alleged founder of Wikileaks – 2024-03-13 21:29:02

It was the distant 2010 when the planet was shaken by the revelations of Wikileaks, a platform that aspired to become the “Fifth Estate” that would control the arbitrariness of governments.

Today, 14 years later, the Australian claiming to be its founder, Julian Assange, remains trapped in a judicial odyssey. And while the climax of the drama is expected this month, his marathon legal journey does not seem to have a short end.

In late February, a two-day trial in Britain examined the decision of the High Court in London, which in June 2023 opposed Assange’s ability to appeal his extradition to the US, which had been accepted by the British government a year earlier.

Now, the fate of the alleged founder of WikiLeaks hangs on the decision of two British judges, which is expected, in all likelihood, in March.

But how did it get here?

Assange, 52, has already spent nearly five years behind bars at London’s Belmars maximum security prison.

He was arrested by British police in April 2019 following a US extradition request. But before that, he spent seven years incarcerated in the Ecuadorian embassy in London to avoid arrest, after the then government of the Latin American country had granted him political asylum in 2012.

At the time, Assange was facing extradition from Britain to Sweden on sexual assault charges in the Scandinavian country – charges that were eventually dropped. But when the next Ecuadorian government revoked Assange’s asylum status, British authorities arrested Assange, and Britain then agreed to a US request for his extradition. Assange is being prosecuted on 18 charges, including espionage, imposed in 2019 by the administration of Donald Trump, with a prison sentence that could reach up to 175 years, while fears and concerns are already being expressed about his health.

The controversial revelations and the wave of support

The American authorities show particular persistence in this particular case, as they argue that Julian Assange, with his leaks, endangered the lives of many American agents and diplomats.

If anything, Assange played a major role in exposing the fallacies of the US “war on terror”. In particular, a trove of classified documents on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, along with a video of a US military helicopter attack that killed 18 people in Baghdad, put the US government in an extremely difficult position, highlighting issues such as the “collateral losses’ and the unimaginable heights of the numbers related to the death of civilians.

Precisely for this reason, his supporters believe he is being prosecuted for political reasons, as he “dared” to expose crimes committed by US forces outside US borders.

In addition, the whistleblower and activist – who in 2010 collaborated with five newspapers, including the Guardian, New York Times, Monde and Der Spiegel to publish the leaked documents – contributed to the development of a new type of investigative journalism, based on the processing of dozens thousands of digital data files.

For this reason, associations of journalists around the world, as well as human rights organizations, are warning about the impact that the development of this case may have on the press. His words were also indicative Christou Dimopoulouits director Greek Section of Amnesty International, at a related event held last week at the ESIEA building. Specifically, Mr. Dimopoulos noted that his eventual extradition to the US and his conviction “would create a legal precedent for prosecuting journalists and would encourage efforts to exterminate through legal means for reports that are ‘disturbing'”.

And at the institutional level, however, efforts are being made in favor of Julian Assange. The Prime Minister of his country, Anthony Albanizzi, commented on the Assange case saying that, whatever he thinks of him, the persecution he has been subjected to must stop and he must return to his country. The Australian parliament even voted a motion to end the specific legal proceedings. But also internationally, the most recent example of official support for the 52-year-old came last week from Germany, with Chancellor Olaf Solz in an unusual intervention, to warn that British judges should protect the alleged Wikileaks founder from extradition to the US.

However, the final decision rests with the British court. If Assange is ultimately denied the opportunity to appeal, his only chance to avoid extradition to the US is to go to the European Court of Human Rights. And so, Julian Assange’s odyssey is expected to have a long continuation.