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Julian Assange

Trying to make sense of a crazy world, with limited success mostly
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RTH10260
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Julian Assange

#1

Post by RTH10260 »

FWIW
US. Case Against Julian Assange Falls Apart, as Key Witness Says He Lied to Get Immunity

Democracy Now!
Published on 28 Jun 2021

One of the main witnesses in Julian Assange’s extradition case has admitted he made false claims against Assange in exchange for immunity from prosecution, a bombshell revelation that could have a major impact on the WikiLeaks founder’s fate. Assange faces up to 175 years in prison if brought to the U.S., where he was indicted for violations of the Espionage Act related to the publication of classified documents exposing U.S. war crimes. According to a new article in the Icelandic newspaper Stundin, the convicted hacker Sigurdur “Siggi” Thordarson falsely claimed he was a prominent WikiLeaks representative instructed by Assange to carry out hacking attacks, but he was in fact only tangentially involved with the organization. The article suggests the U.S. Justice Department collaborated with Thordarson to generate the indictment for Assange that was submitted to the British courts. “This is just the latest revelation to demonstrate why the U.S. case should be dropped,” says Jennifer Robinson, a human rights attorney who has been advising Assange and WikiLeaks since 2010. “The factual basis for this case has completely fallen apart.”
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Re: Julian Assange

#2

Post by jcolvin2 »

Marcy Wheeler thinks that the claim that Siggi's recantation of his prior testimony weakens the case against Assange is bullshit:
Link to EmptyWheel post about Sigurdur Ingi Thordarson
This is an article about Sigurdur Ingi Thordarson, AKA Siggi, the sociopath that Assange chose to hang out with for a period in 2010 to 2011, who does have a role but by no means the “main” role in the case against Assange. The journalists who wrote the article present as credible Siggi’s claim, from someone that everyone agrees is a pathological liar, that he’s telling the truth now, rather than when he testified to US authorities in 2019.

***

Except, Siggi retracts nothing substantive that is alleged in the indictment, so this drama is instead a demand that you accept the word of a liar rather than read the documents to show that the liar’s claims are irrelevant to the charges against Assange.

***

There’s no there there in this article. Moreover, all the claims in it — most notably, that Siggi is a sociopath and a liar — have been long known. What the article misunderstands is where Siggi’s testimony may be important, where it served to explain existing documentary files, and the many ways in which DOJ ensured it didn’t rely on such an easily discredited witness. The article also doesn’t understand how co-conspirator statements — statements that have already been made — get entered at trial.

You go to trial with the sociopaths that a target like Julian Assange has chosen to associate with, not with the Boy Scouts you’d like to have as witnesses. But this indictment relies on that sociopath far less than Stundin would have you believe, and Siggi’s purported retractions do very little to rebut the indictment or [UK extradition judge] Baraitser’s ruling about the case. More importantly, the article claims that the DOJ’s purported reliance on a sociopath is fatal, but their argument is based on the claims of that same sociopath.
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Re: Julian Assange

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Julian Assange

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recent developments cause Pest & Efail mentioned the name :eek:

Julian Assange appeals to European court over U.S. extradition

By Michael Holden
December 2, 20228:53 PM GMT+1Last Updated 2 months ago

LONDON, Dec 2 (Reuters) - WikiLeaks' founder Julian Assange, who is battling extradition from Britain to the United States where he is wanted on criminal charges, has submitted an appeal to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), the court confirmed on Friday.

Assange, 51, is wanted by U.S. authorities on 18 counts, including one under a spying act, relating to WikiLeaks' release of vast troves of confidential U.S. military records and diplomatic cables which Washington said had put lives in danger.

Britain has given the go-ahead for his extradition, but he has launched an appeal at London's High Court, with the first hearing expected early next year.

Register for free to Reuters and know the full story

His legal team have also launched a case against Britain at the ECHR, which could potentially order the extradition to be blocked.

"We confirm that an application has been received," a statement from the court said.




https://www.reuters.com/world/julian-as ... 022-12-02/
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Latin American Presidents Throw Weight Behind Campaign to Free Assange

ByTHE PRESS ASSOCIATION (Alan Jones, PA Industrial Correspondent)
January 22, 2023 at 4:53 PM GMT+1

Follow us at @BloombergUK and on Facebook, and wrap up your day with The Readout newsletter with Allegra Stratton.

The campaign to free WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is being stepped up following support from the presidents of all major Latin American countries.

The politicians have sided with the Free Assange campaign in urging US president Joe Biden to drop the charges and set him free.

Assange is being held in Belmarsh prison in London as he continues to fight being extradited to the United States.

WikiLeaks editor-in-chief Kristinn Hrafnsson and WikiLeaks ambassador Joseph Farrell have held a series of meetings in recent weeks in Latin American countries including Mexico, Bolivia, Brazil and Argentina.

The Mexican president raised the issue of Julian Assange at a recent summit with Mr Biden, and has used his daily briefing to highlight his continuing "unjust detention".

Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said: "Assange needs to be defended by all of us who love democracy, who love freedom of the press, freedom of trade unions, who love freedom of organisation."

Mexican president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said: "If he (Assange) is taken to the United States and sentenced to the maximum penalty ... we must begin the campaign to dismantle the Statue of Liberty.



https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... an-assange
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Biden accused of hypocrisy as he seeks extradition of Julian Assange
Ad-hoc tribunal of legal experts and supporters pressures US administration to drop ‘attack on press freedom’

Chris McGreal
Fri 20 Jan 2023 23.12 GMT

Joe Biden has been accused of hypocrisy for demanding the release of journalists detained around the world while the US president continues seeking the extradition of the WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange from Britain to face American espionage charges.

The campaign to pressure the Biden administration to drop the charges moved to Washington DC on Friday with a hearing of the Belmarsh Tribunal, an ad hoc gathering of legal experts and supporters named after the London prison where Assange is being detained.

The hearing was held in the same room where Assange in 2010 exposed the “collateral murder” video showing US aircrew gunning down Iraqi civilians, the first of hundreds of thousands of leaked secret military documents and diplomatic cables published in major newspapers around the world. The revelations about America’s wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, including alleged war crimes, and the frank assessments of US diplomats about their host governments, caused severe embarrassment in Washington.

The tribunal heard that the charges against Assange were an “ongoing attack on press freedom” because the WikiLeaks founder was not a spy but a journalist and publisher protected by free speech laws.



https://www.theguardian.com/media/2023/ ... n-tribunal
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Julian Assange

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Post by Dave from down under »

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-06-09/ ... /102459642

Australian Julian Assange will fight to overturn a United Kingdom High Court ruling that rejected his appeal against extradition to the United States.

Key points:

The upcoming appeal is the last legal option for Julian Assange in the UK
The US is seeking to extradite him on charges of espionage and he faces 175 years in prison
The UK government signed the extradition order last year
The 51-year-old WikiLeaks founder is wanted in the US for espionage, where he faces 18 charges related to publishing of tens of thousands of military and diplomatic documents.

Mr Assange last year lodged an appeal in the United Kingdom's High Court after the UK government signed an order authorising his extradition to the US.

The court rejected his appeal in a three-page written decision from Justice Jonathan Swift issued this week.

The latest High Court decision means the WikiLeaks founder is "dangerously close" to being extradited to the US, according to Reporters Without Borders (RSF).
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Julian Assange

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Post by Tiredretiredlawyer »

:popcorn:
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Julian Assange

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Post by raison de arizona »

👎
WikiLeaks @wikileaks wrote: Editors and publishers of the five media organizations who first partnered with Julian Assange - The New York Times, The Guardian, Le Monde, El País and Der Spiegel - call for his immediate release https://nytco.com/press/an-open-letter- ... t-a-crime/
“Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.” —John Adams
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