ruling by High Court in London that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, currently in a British prison, may be extradited to the US, where he is facing charges under the espionage actThis is a big blow to those who believe in freedom of the press. A lower court earlier this year rejected a US request for extradition, citing his mental health. His lawyers and doctors had argued that US prison conditions may have driven him to suicide. But the High Court, after getting some assurances from the US authorities that Mr. Assange Will not be kept in preventive prison conditions (based on his conduct), decided to allow extradition. The US accused him of conspiring to hack into defense databases to obtain sensitive unclassified information. The US says the leak puts lives at risk. If convicted, Mr. Assange, 50, could face up to 175 years in prison. His legal team will now appeal and the legal process could go on for years. But these cases have already put him in some form of imprisonment for years. He took refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy in London in 2012 while facing an investigation into allegations of sexual assault in Sweden, which was later turned down. In 2019, following his arrest from the embassy, he was jailed for 50 weeks in the UK for violating his bail conditions. He is now in Belmarsh Prison in London.
Document WikiLeaks Continuing on the Iraq and Afghan wars, which were published by almost all media houses, exposed official crimes and cover-ups. Any responsible, democratic government should have taken action against those who committed those crimes. Instead, the US government went after the publisher. The Trump administration dropped the indictment against Mr Assange for violating the Espionage Act, a World War I-era law, following his 2019 arrest. The US government argued that he was not a journalist. But beyond the definition of journalism, what America tried to do was to use a controversial law to punish anyone who published unpleasant truths about powerful entities. If he is extradited and convicted, it would set a bad precedent for press freedom and investigative journalism, raising questions about the protections provided by the First Amendment to the press. It is ironic that the administration of President Joseph Biden, which last week held a global “summit for democracy” and emphasized the role of the free press, is following Mr. Trump’s policies in advancing Mr. Assange. If the US and Britain, among the world’s oldest democracies, are serious about their stated commitment to freedom of the press, they should take steps to free Mr. Assange. The “free world” that has put this man to the test for exposing his abuse of power has taken years away from his life and affected his health. It shouldn’t last forever.
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