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."
"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.
What the U.S. government is doing to Julian Assange puts all journalists at risk and undermines press freedom. He faces prosecution for journalism—for publishing materials exposing war crimes and other horrors in Afghanistan and Iraq. Uphold the 1st Amendment. Free or pardon him.
— Justin Amash (@justinamash) December 10, 2021
This is the consensus of press freedom and civil liberties groups in the west.
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) December 10, 2021
Has a single national Democrat -- all of whom pretended to be sooo profoundly and deeply concerned about press freedoms over the last four years -- said anything remotely like this today? https://t.co/cOpb7tz7x8
Assange was merely doing what the vast majority of the mainstream media has long since neglected: his job. https://t.co/iDrULNRFIN
— FEE (@feeonline) December 10, 2021
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.
Please remember that despite years of meaningless shrieking theatrics by corporate media, the most straightforward attack on press freedoms committed by the Trump Administration -- the prosecution of Assange -- is being continued by the Biden Administration, to minimal objection
— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) December 10, 2021
What did the US media treat as a bigger crisis: when Jim Acosta was excluded from the White House press room for a few days in 2018 (does anyone even remember that? It was basically the apocalypse) -- or the ongoing the bipartisan prosecution of Assange? https://t.co/IfZhD2k6Tw
— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) December 10, 2021
When it comes to US attacks on press freedoms in the
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) December 10, 2021
last 6 years, nothing comes close to Assange's extradition and prosecution. Nothing is in the same universe. But media frauds don't care because he's not one of them, not in their clique, and is a real journalist & dissident. https://t.co/rNOxaJPZwW