Slashdot Mirror


Julian Assange Launches Legal Challenge Against Trump Administration (theguardian.com)

SonicSpike shares a report from The Guardian: Julian Assange, the fugitive WikiLeaks founder whose diplomatic sanctuary in the Ecuadorian embassy appears increasingly precarious, is launching a legal challenge against the Trump administration. Lawyers for the Australian activist have filed an urgent application to the Washington-based Inter-American Commission of Human Rights (IACHR) aimed at forcing the hand of U.S. prosecutors, requiring them to "unseal" any secret charges against him. The legal move is an attempt to prevent Assange's extradition to the U.S. at a time that a new Ecuadorian government has been making his stay in the central London apartment increasingly inhospitable.

The 1,172-page submission by Assange's lawyers calls on the U.S. to unseal any secret charges against him and urges Ecuador to cease its "espionage activities" against him. Baltasar Garzon, the prominent Spanish judge who has pursued dictators, terrorists and drug barons, is the international coordinator of Assange's legal team. He has said the case involves "the right to access and impart information freely" that has been put in "jeopardy." The Trump administration is refusing to reveal details of charges against Assange despite the fact that sources in the U.S. Department of Justice have confirmed to the media that they exist under seal. The application alleges that U.S. prosecutors have begun approaching people in the U.S., Germany and Iceland and pressed them to testify against Assange in return for immunity from prosecution. Those approached, it is said, include people associated with WikiLeaks' joint publications with other media about U.S. diplomacy, Guantanamo Bay and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

5 of 244 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Don't worry, Julian by rtb61 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Yeah, right. What this is really all about, the US government wants to declare it globally illegal to report the criminal activities of the US government in the rest of the world. So you as citizen witness the criminal activity of a foriegn power, the US government, in your country or in an country where you are at the time, if you report the crime to the authorities of that country, the US want to charge you with the crime of espionage, seriously. You see a CIA agent kill someone, report it and the US government wants to prosecute you and probably kill you in detention, you committed a crime against the US state by reporting the crimes of the US state, when they are the foreign power. A real shite stain, on freedom, democracy and justice, full blow fascism and a populace too cowardly to put a stop to it, even when they are publicly attacked, imagine men allowing the government to fondle their genitals in front of those, well, women's children, they ain't men no more, when they allow that to happen, an emasculated populace, sheeple, trained to be sheared.

    --
    Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
  2. Re:Revenge against Hillary by elrous0 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    America talks big about whistleblowers, but when it comes right down to it, our government is just as petty and vindictive as any dictatorship.

    I once heard a lawyer who put it best (and I'm heavily paraphrasing here): "Nobody ever thanks a whistleblower. At best they might have a movie made about them or have someone praise them in an op-ed. But even then, long after all the positive press has stopped, they've still lost their job and been permanently black-balled in their field. And there will always be people who will resent and hate them for what they did. They'll always be looking over their shoulders, looking for work in a world where no one wants to hire them, and probably wishing they had just kept their mouth shut. And that's the best case scenario. Worst case, they end up dead or in prison."

    --
    SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
  3. Re:Think he can kick Ecuador out of their embassy? by currently_awake · · Score: 5, Informative

    How many of the suspects locked in Guantanamo Bay have even been charged? Keeping suspects in jail till they die of old age isn't legal in the USA. The US government has proved they are willing (and able) to lock people up without trial and throw away the key. Also notice they intend to try them under military law, even though they claim none of them are soldiers, and they claim juristiction over crimes committed in foreign countries.

  4. Re:Wikileaks are a russian front by johnsie · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You're missing the bigger picture. The Russians are not left or right. Their goal is instability in the US. That means making partisan differences worse. Getting the people to vote for governments that cannot function. Divide and conquer is the name of the game. In that respect they will 'support' any side if they know they can use it to stir up trouble. They want Americans to turn on each other.

  5. Re:How things change by Freischutz · · Score: 5, Insightful

    When he was leaking things that made Bush look bad you loved Julian Assange so hard that Benedict Cumberbatch played him in the movie.

    And when he was leaking things that made Bush look bad the right wing hated Julian Assange so hard they had smoke coming out of their collective ears, now they love him because he fixed an election for Trump. People love and hate things based on whether these thing further or hinder their cause which shouldn't surprise anybody.