I've gone up-to-date on our Julian Assange theme song. This Annie Lennox cover version is not quite to my taste musically, but she is easily pale enough to represent the prison-face Assange.
The occasion for this update is the bad news Assange and his supporters received today from the UK High Court:
LONDON, March 26 (Reuters) - WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange's extradition to the United States from Britain was put on hold on Tuesday after London's High Court said the United States must provide assurances he would not face the death penalty.-- snip --[His lawyer's objections had been] that Australian-born Assange arguably would not be entitled to rely on the First Amendment right to free speech as a non-U.S. national and, while none of the existing charges carried the death penalty, he could later face a capital offence such as treason, meaning it would be unlawful to extradite him.-- snip --The judges invited the U.S. authorities to provide assurances on these matters, saying if they were not forthcoming by April 16, then Assange would be granted permission to appeal.However, they rejected his lawyers' argument the case was politically motivated or that he would not receive a fair trial.
On balance, it looks like Assange is screwed. Extradition is looming unless the Biden administration wants to throw the case by refusing to provide those mild assurances the High Court asked it for.
Will it? Maybe. I can't imagine what election year calculations are going on in the White House, DOJ, and the Biden campaign.
But one thing I do know. I am thoroughly tired of Assange's self-aggrandizing fantasy about the death penalty. He thrills his supporters with the prospect of the USA sending him to the chair in this or possibly another alternative universe. It's mawkish. Find a better way to build your self-esteem.
Condolences, but Assange isn't charged with any offense that is punishable by death. For that, he'd have to have violated the Prime Directive, or something equally grave.
2 comments:
Assange should know better: https://youtu.be/jMyD3TSXyUc?si=lej1xBI8-pF5jBDd
When he does his hide-and-seek from prisons or Ecuadorian embassies he makes himself easy to find. What to do with him then, now, that's the problem.
I'd sentence him to the time served as he's evaded arrest for the past - what's it been? - eight or so years. But only on condition he be paroled into the custody of that lawyer-activist wife and two kids he picked up along the way. No strange for him!
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