Tipsheet

Julian Assange Can Be Extradited to U.S., Press Freedom Advocates Slam Decision

Landon Mion
Landon Mion  |  December 10, 2021 9:00 PM

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange can be extradited to the U.S., where he could face a 175-year prison sentence for releasing classified documents leaked to him exposing the country's alleged war crimes, after an appellate court in the United Kingdom on Friday overturned an earlier decision from a lower court blocking his extradition.

Assange, who will face espionage charges if he is extradited to the U.S., is accused of publishing information to Wikileaks detailing alleged crimes committed by the U.S. government in the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, Iraq and Afghanistan, and reveals instances in which the CIA engaged in torture and rendition.

The information released by Assange was also published by The New York Times, The Guardian and other mainstream media outlets but the Wikileaks founder was the only one to face potential legal repercussions.

Assange has also been accused of damaging Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential chances when his site published internal communications taken from the Democratic National Committee and the Clinton presidential campaign. 

Stella Morris, Assange's fiancée, said they plan to appeal the court's decision. She also slammed the ruling as "dangerous and misguided" and a "grave miscarriage of justice."

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"How can it be fair, how can it be right, how can it be possible, to extradite Julian to the very country which plotted to kill him?" Morris said.

The CIA has reportedly had plans in the past to kill Assange over the publication of sensitive CIA hacking tools, known as "Vault 7." The agency concluded that Wikileaks publishing these tools represented "the largest data loss in CIA history."

In September, a bombshell report revealed that, during the Trump years, the CIA had discussions "at the highest levels" of the administration over plans to assassinate Assange in London, where he had been residing. The report also showed that kill "sketches" and "options" had been drawn up following orders from then-CIA director Mike Pompeo. The investigation further noted advanced plans to kidnap and rendition Assange and that the CIA made a political decision to charge him.

Assange, 50, is currently being held at London’s high-security Belmarsh Prison.

Lawmakers, journalists, political commentators and other defenders of a free press slammed the decision to extradite Assange.

Assange's supporters also noted of a hypocritical mainstream media that had often accused the Trump administration of attacking a free press, and highlighted CNN's Jim Acosta's claims that his White House press pass being revoked for a few days in 2018 was evidence of an assault on the freedom of the press.