NEW DELHI: ‘WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange should face espionage charges in the United States’, argued the lawyers for the American government on Wednesday, as per an AP report.
They claimed that Assange went beyond journalism in his bid to solicit, steal, and indiscriminately publish classified US government documents, putting innocent lives at risk.
The lawyers spoke before Britain’s high court in response to Assange’s lawyer’s attempt to stop his extradition to the US from UK, where he has been incarcerated for the past five years .
The 52-year-old from Australia is facing 17 charges of espionage and one charge of computer misuse in connection with his website’s release of a extensive collection of classified US documents nearly 15 years ago. According to American prosecutors, Assange is accused of promoting and assisting US Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning in the theft of diplomatic cables and military files, which were subsequently published by WikiLeaks.
Lawyer Clair Dobbin claimed in the high court that Assange posed a threat to US security and intelligence services, contending that his release of hundreds of thousands of documents had caused significant damage and “created a serious and imminent risk.”
Dobbin added that in encouraging Manning and others to hack into government computers and steal from them, Assange was “going a very considerable way beyond” a journalist gathering information.
Meanwhile, Assange’s supporters maintain he is a secrecy-busting journalist who exposed US military wrongdoing in Iraq and Afghanistan. They have long argued that the prosecution is politically motivated and he won’t get a fair trial in the US.
During the first day of the hearing on Tuesday, Assange’s legal team said that “exposure of criminality on the part of the US government on an unprecedented scale,” including torture and killings.
Edward Fitzgerald, the lawyer, expressed concerns that Assange could face a “suffer a flagrant denial of justice” if extradited to the US.
Dobbin rejected claims that the charges are a “tool of oppression” to punish Assange for his political opinions. She said the prosecution is based on law and evidence and has remained consistent despite the changes of government in the US during the course of the legal battle. She added that it was not necessary for WikiLeaks to publish sensitive material, including names of those who could be endangered. Media outlets that went through the process of redacting the documents before publishing them are not being prosecuted, she said.
Dobbin refuted allegations that the charges against Assange are a “tool of oppression” against his political views. She emphasized that the prosecution is based on law and evidence. Additionally, she argued that it is not necessary for WikiLeaks to disclose sensitive information, including the names of individuals at risk adding that Media organisations that redacted the documents prior to publishing are not being prosecuted.
If Assange is found guilty, his legal team said that he may face up to 175 years in prison. However, US authorities have said that the actual sentence is expected to be considerably shorter.
Assange’s family and supporters assert that both his physical and mental well-being have significantly deteriorated due to ‘legal confrontations, which included seven years in self-imposed exile at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London and the subsequent five years in a high-security prison on the outskirts of the British capital’ . His wife Stella Assange went to say , “if he’s extradited, he will die”.
They claimed that Assange went beyond journalism in his bid to solicit, steal, and indiscriminately publish classified US government documents, putting innocent lives at risk.
The lawyers spoke before Britain’s high court in response to Assange’s lawyer’s attempt to stop his extradition to the US from UK, where he has been incarcerated for the past five years .
The 52-year-old from Australia is facing 17 charges of espionage and one charge of computer misuse in connection with his website’s release of a extensive collection of classified US documents nearly 15 years ago. According to American prosecutors, Assange is accused of promoting and assisting US Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning in the theft of diplomatic cables and military files, which were subsequently published by WikiLeaks.
Lawyer Clair Dobbin claimed in the high court that Assange posed a threat to US security and intelligence services, contending that his release of hundreds of thousands of documents had caused significant damage and “created a serious and imminent risk.”
Dobbin added that in encouraging Manning and others to hack into government computers and steal from them, Assange was “going a very considerable way beyond” a journalist gathering information.
Meanwhile, Assange’s supporters maintain he is a secrecy-busting journalist who exposed US military wrongdoing in Iraq and Afghanistan. They have long argued that the prosecution is politically motivated and he won’t get a fair trial in the US.
During the first day of the hearing on Tuesday, Assange’s legal team said that “exposure of criminality on the part of the US government on an unprecedented scale,” including torture and killings.
Edward Fitzgerald, the lawyer, expressed concerns that Assange could face a “suffer a flagrant denial of justice” if extradited to the US.
Dobbin rejected claims that the charges are a “tool of oppression” to punish Assange for his political opinions. She said the prosecution is based on law and evidence and has remained consistent despite the changes of government in the US during the course of the legal battle. She added that it was not necessary for WikiLeaks to publish sensitive material, including names of those who could be endangered. Media outlets that went through the process of redacting the documents before publishing them are not being prosecuted, she said.
Dobbin refuted allegations that the charges against Assange are a “tool of oppression” against his political views. She emphasized that the prosecution is based on law and evidence. Additionally, she argued that it is not necessary for WikiLeaks to disclose sensitive information, including the names of individuals at risk adding that Media organisations that redacted the documents prior to publishing are not being prosecuted.
If Assange is found guilty, his legal team said that he may face up to 175 years in prison. However, US authorities have said that the actual sentence is expected to be considerably shorter.
Assange’s family and supporters assert that both his physical and mental well-being have significantly deteriorated due to ‘legal confrontations, which included seven years in self-imposed exile at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London and the subsequent five years in a high-security prison on the outskirts of the British capital’ . His wife Stella Assange went to say , “if he’s extradited, he will die”.