The whereabouts of Julian Assange, the controversial creator of WikiLeaks, continue to be a source of global fascination. Assange, who gained notoriety for disclosing secret government records, had legal difficulties and applied for asylum at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London in 2012.
He was detained by British officials in 2019 following years of diplomatic wrangling, and he was facing extradition to the US on charges of espionage.
Who is Julian Assange?
Australian Julian Assange is the founder of WikiLeaks, a website that has gained notoriety for disclosing secret and classified material.
Notable publications include Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign emails, the Guantanamo Bay detention camp’s operations manual, and war records from Iraq and Afghanistan.
His supporters regard him as a champion of press freedom and government transparency.
His detractors view him as a renegade actor whose leaks jeopardize national security. His indictment has sparked debate about press freedom in the digital era as well as the boundaries of American jurisdiction in a globalized world.
Where is Julian Assange Now?
For almost five years, Julian Assange has been in prison in the United Kingdom. His attorneys said he was ill, so he did not appear in court with them on Tuesday.
After the hearing concludes on Wednesday, a judgment about his extradition may be made, but the judges may take more time to deliberate. Supporters fear he would be sent to the United States before he has an opportunity to file an appeal if they choose to sustain the extradition.
What Did Julian Assange Do?
The American Department of Justice is seeking Assange’s extradition in order to prosecute him on seventeen counts stemming from the 1917 Espionage Act as well as one more count of computer hacking.
The accusations followed the release by WikiLeaks of a vast cache of secret documents detailing American military operations, which Chelsea Manning, a former intelligence analyst for the U.S. Army, supplied.
The website released video footage of a civilian-killing attack by an American chopper. In the months that followed, it also made public hundreds of thousands of documents pertaining to the killing of civilians, the search for Osama bin Laden, the leader of al-Qaida, and Iran’s support for terrorists in Iraq.
According to the US government, Assange is a criminal who colluded with Manning to steal the records and endanger the lives of people who worked for the military. According to the prosecution, Assange even assisted in figuring out a military computer password.
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What Do Assange’s Supporters Say?
Many of Assange’s supporters relate his struggle for press freedom and a fair trial to the campaign against extradition to the U.S. In its editorial this week, the Guardian maintained that journalists need whistleblowers like Assange, especially on national security.
Even if this final appeal is rejected, Reporters Without Borders campaign director Rebecca Vincent said, “The U.S. government can end this judicial tragedy by dropping its 13-year-old case against Assange and ending this endless persecution. Publishing public-interest material should not be punished. Journalism, press freedom, and our right to know must be protected.”
Assange’s physical and mental health are also questioned. Amnesty International warns that extraditing Assange might lead to “risk of serious human rights violations, including possible detention conditions that would amount to torture and other ill-treatment.”
“There could not be more at stake in a single court case than there is in Julian’s case,” Stella Assange said Monday, calling for supporters to protest at the Royal Courts of Justice in London on Tuesday and Wednesday during the appeal hearings. “Journalists must have the right to report the facts that governments and corporations want to hide; otherwise, a truly free press is impossible.”
She told the BBC that her husband’s physical and mental weakness would make extradition to the U.S. impossible. “This case will determine if he lives or dies, essentially,” she told CBSN.
