After four days of intense deliberations between Wiki Leaks founder Julian Assange’s legal team and attorneys representing the United States government at the end of February 2020 the British judge suspended the extradition hearings until mid-May.
The Trump administration decided to charge Julian Assange under the Espionage Act for his role in publishing classified documents exposing U.S. war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan. He could be sentenced to up to 175 years in prison.
In contrast the Obama administration had decided not to charge under the Espionage Act in order to protect media such as the New York Times who published the very same materials that Assange had made public.
Assange has been held in London’s high security Belmarsh prison since April 2019, when he was removed from the Ecuadorian embassy by British police. Assange was a resident of the embassy for seven years after entering it in June 2012 to claim diplomatic asylum. He was wanted by Swedish authorities for questioning over sexual offenses. Charges that now appear to have been fabricated
In this program by TUC radio we look at the media response from Going Underground to Democracy Now, with the reports from UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Nils Melzer, Sevim Dagdelen, a member of the German Bundestag and Assange’s attorney, Jennifer Robinson.
Thanks to Democracy Now and RT’s Going Underground for their coverage of a case of extraordinary miscarriage of Justice and their courage to break through the silence of the mainstream media.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 29:00 — 19.9MB)
