SRH: Crime Publishing Truth’s Julian Assange Is the Watchman. That’s Unacceptable for Most Governments Today. U.S., U.K., et al.

By SRH,

Julian Assange, of Crime Publishing Truth, serves as the watchman. That is unacceptable to most regimes today. US, UK, et al.

For WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and his legal team, Tuesday, February 21, marks a watershed moment. That is when two high court judges in London will hear arguments about whether Assange can appeal a decision to extradite him to the United States, where he would almost surely spend the rest of his life in jail, most likely in a harsh "supermax" federal facility. The hearing is set till Wednesday.

Stella Assange, his wife, has warned that if the courts find against him, he might be on an aircraft to the United States within days. He would be sent from the high-security Belmarsh prison to the United States for a trial on espionage-related charges and revealing state secrets, where he would face a 175-year sentence.

According to his wife, "It is the final hearing; if it does not go Julian's way, there is no possibility of appealing to the Supreme Court or anywhere else in this jurisdiction."

She added that the situation is "extremely grave" because his health is still "in decline." She said, "If he is extradited, he will die."

The Guardian has commented on US officials' attempts to pressure journalists who collaborated with Assange to turn against him.

The Metropolitan Police have approached four prominent journalists on behalf of the FBI: James Ball, an ex-WikiLeaks colleague now with the Bureau of Investigative Journalism; David Leigh, a former Guardian and Observer journalist; Heather Brooke, a freedom of information campaigner; and Andrew O'Hagan, who was commissioned to ghost Assange's autobiography.

They've all declined to cooperate with the FBI. In a Rolling Stone article this year, Ball revealed that he was approached in 2021 and faced pressure, including the possibility of prosecution.

O'Hagan stated that, despite his disagreements with Assange, he would gladly go to jail rather than assist the FBI. "I'd simply add that attempting to penalize Assange for revealing the truth is an attack on media itself. I've seen that none of his mainstream collaborators—the New York Times, the Guardian, and Der Spiegel—are being pursued, indicating that a generational bias against internet-based journalism is at the root of the case. If Julian travels to the United States, Britain will have failed to defend one of the founding ideals of democracy."

Kristinn Hrafnsson, WikiLeaks' editor-in-chief, has spoken on the implications of Assange's trial and likely extradition for press freedom in the future. "It cannot be underestimated the effect that it will have," he went on to say. "If an Australian citizen publishing in Europe can face prison time in the United States, that means no journalists anywhere are safe in the future."

In Assange's native Australia, the parliament just agreed to issue an official request that charges against Julian Assange be withdrawn. The parliament's motion emphasised "the importance of the UK and USA bringing the matter to a close so that Mr. Assange can return to his family in Australia."