Tuesday, October 26, 2021
“Inhuman treatment threatens”
Amnesty urges Assange to be released
On Wednesday, a court will hear the possible extradition of Julian Assange to the United States. Amnesty International has serious doubts about the assurances of the US authorities that they want to treat the whistleblower well and is calling for his release. The US apparently even considered his assassination.
Before the appeal proceedings against the Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, Amnesty International demanded his immediate release. It is to be feared that the 50-year-old will not receive “humane treatment” if he is extradited to the United States, the human rights organization said. Recent reports from Yahoo News suggested that the US was planning to kidnap or even kill Assange while he was at the Ecuadorian embassy in London.
“This makes the diplomatic assurances of the US authorities that Assange expects good treatment in the US, even less credible,” said Amnesty. The organization called on the US authorities to drop all charges against the Australian.
Appeal proceedings against the ban on Assange’s extradition to the United States will begin in a London court on Wednesday. The Wikileaks founder has been in Belmarsh Prison in London for more than two years. He was arrested in the UK in 2019 after having holed up in the Ecuadorian embassy in London for seven years.
175 years imprisonment
In January, a court in London rejected a US extradition request. The judge justified her decision with the mental state of the Australian and the strict prison conditions that would await him in a trial in the USA. There is a “considerable” risk that Assange would commit suicide while in US custody, she said. Because the US government appealed the verdict, Assange was not released for the time being.
The 50-year-old is charged with secret document disclosure and espionage in the United States. If convicted, he would face up to 175 years imprisonment there. In 2010 and 2011, the disclosure platform Wikileaks put hundreds of thousands of secret papers on the Internet, mainly on the Iraq war, which had been leaked to it by the former US soldier Chelsea Manning. The documents contained sensitive information about US operations, including the killing of civilians and the mistreatment of prisoners.