Just this morning, the legal teams on behalf of the US and Julian Assange met to decide the grounds on which the prosecution could appeal the decision in the Julian Assange case. On January 4th, Judge Vanessa Baraitser ruled against extradition, notably based on the fact his life would be at risk if he were subject to the draconian US prison system in his current physical and mental state. Despite the fact Baraitser's decision actually ordered him to be discharged, Julian was whisked away back to HMP Belmarsh prison while the US immediately set their plan to appeal the decision in motion. Two days later, Julian's bail was denied so he could remain in the Guantánamo Bay of London along with the future of press freedom. Prior to this morning, the US prosecution was granted a limited appeal, meaning they could only appeal 3 of the 5 grounds they put forth to the court.
Since the US could not appeal on the grounds related to Assange's health, their focus today was to weasel them out by discrediting Professor Michael Kopelman, the neuropsychiatrist who assessed Assange, and to "prove" that the district judge put too much weight on the evidence that showed Julian would be at risk of suicide. The lunacy of that alone stuns me; but I suppose we should come to expect the sheer audacity of a failing empire to torture a man and then discredit the assessments of his health in a court of law.
https://twitter.com/kgosztola/status/1425450845966151685?s=20
- kgosztola
Ultimately despite the prosecution's usually cowardly and asinine arguments they achieved their goal of this hearing, they can now appeal on all 5 grounds and a date of October 27-28 has been set for a full appeal. So as it has been for the past 2.3 years since Julian was dragged out of the Ecuadorian Embassy, press freedom is in grave danger; and the US is once again closer to gaining international jurisdiction over journalism now that they have all their grounds they can appeal on.
Now, I can't help but wonder, if Julian's defense committed war crimes could they have received an ounce of empathy? Do they need to find a convicted pedophile and certified sociopath to lie in a testimony in favor of Julian to strengthen their argument? Can they hire a private security firm to spy on the entire prosecution? Would that work? But that answer lies the brazen lack of real justice characteristic of a brutal empire. What is evidenced by this case is not only how the US empire will try to destroy journalism, but also how the blatant disregard for human rights penetrates even a so-called "justice" system. And this case is by far not the only one showing that, as there are mountains of truly awful stories within the carceral system that show how little the US cares about human rights, it's just this case that the US is using to criminalise spreading the truth. It really is heartbreaking every single time to see the brutality of these "justice" systems at work, and it is once again brought to the forefront as a part of the biggest press freedom trial of our lifetime. Perhaps the worst part of the hearing, besides seeing the US get closer to it's goal of extraditing Julian, was reading through the messages describing Julian- how he looked and processed the hearing.
We're confronted - for the billionth time ffs - with the torture of a human for daring to stand up to an empire. This trial smacks a rebuttal in the face of any State Department bootlicker trying to posture about "democratic values" the West allegedly holds so near and dear to its heart. Because of its brazen hypocrisy in Julian's case and others the US fully greenlights the further degradation of journalism and human rights around the world, as despite facetious pleasantries from their PR agents despots in other countries become more excited at the idea of what they can get away with. We must pay attention to this case and protest it, for how can the truth set us free if it's locked away forever?
https://twitter.com/GreenweaverArch/status/1425356332366929923?s=20
- GreenweaverArch
https://twitter.com/StefSimanowitz/status/1425394506950709248?s=20
- StefSimanowitz
https://twitter.com/alimay101234/status/1425390894690324481?s=20
- alimay101234