{"id":28046,"date":"2024-04-16T19:40:57","date_gmt":"2024-04-16T19:40:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/04\/16\/u-s-lays-out-protections-for-assange-if-he-is-extradited\/"},"modified":"2024-04-16T19:40:57","modified_gmt":"2024-04-16T19:40:57","slug":"u-s-lays-out-protections-for-assange-if-he-is-extradited","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/04\/16\/u-s-lays-out-protections-for-assange-if-he-is-extradited\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. Lays Out Protections for Assange if He Is Extradited"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1050\" height=\"550\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/04\/16\/multimedia\/16uk-assange-zwgk\/16uk-assange-zwgk-facebookJumbo.jpg?fit=1050,550&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"U.S. Lays Out Protections for Assange if He Is Extradited\" title=\"U.S. Lays Out Protections for Assange if He Is Extradited\" \/><\/div><p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The possibility that Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder, could be extradited to the United States seemed to edge closer on Tuesday, after American officials sent assurances to British authorities that he would not face the death penalty or be persecuted for his nationality, and that he could seek First Amendment protections.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The assurances were the latest turn in a prolonged legal battle over the extradition of Mr. Assange, who has been indicted by the United States for violating the Espionage Act by publishing classified documents. They came after <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/04\/10\/us\/politics\/julian-assange-prosecution.html\" title=\"\">a remark from President Biden last week<\/a> that the administration was considering a request from Mr. Assange\u2019s home country of Australia that he be allowed to return there, prompting <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/04\/11\/world\/europe\/assange-extradition-us-biden.html\" title=\"\">speculation that the U.S. could be rethinking the case.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">But the filing of the commitments, <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/03\/26\/world\/europe\/julian-assange-uk-court-us-extradition.html\" title=\"\">requested by a British court last month<\/a> as part of Mr. Assange\u2019s five-year battle against extradition to the United States, suggested that American authorities may still be pursuing his removal.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Assange, 52, was the head of WikiLeaks in 2010 when it published tens of thousands of classified military and diplomatic documents leaked by Chelsea Manning, an Army intelligence analyst. He has been held in a high-security British prison since the charges were filed in 2019. Before that, he had taken refuge for years in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London. The charges <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2019\/05\/23\/us\/politics\/assange-indictment.html\" title=\"\">raised questions about First Amendment issues<\/a>, and some saw them as a threat to press freedom.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Assange\u2019s extradition was put on hold by the court earlier this year <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/03\/26\/world\/europe\/julian-assange-uk-court-us-extradition.html\" title=\"\">pending assurances<\/a> about his treatment if he were sent to the United States, as the judges sought commitments that he would not be penalized for his nationality, that he would be able to seek protections under the First Amendment and that he would not face the death penalty.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In a letter to the British Foreign Office, the U.S. Embassy in London said that Mr. Assange, who is Australian, \u201cwill not be prejudiced by reason of his nationality,\u201d promising that, if he were extradited, he would have the ability to seek \u201cthe rights and protections given under the First Amendment.\u201d The Embassy also noted that the death penalty would \u201cneither be sought or imposed\u201d in his case.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">After the comments from Mr. Biden, Stella Assange, Mr. Assange\u2019s wife, <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/04\/11\/world\/europe\/assange-extradition-us-biden.html\" title=\"\">said that she was hopeful, but that his extradition case had reached a critical moment.<\/a> But she said on Tuesday that the new assurances sent to the court did little to assuage fears about how her husband would be treated.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThe diplomatic note does nothing to relieve our family\u2019s extreme distress about his future \u2014 his grim expectation of spending the rest of his life in isolation in U.S. prison for publishing award-winning journalism,\u201d she said in a statement. \u201cThe Biden Administration must drop this dangerous prosecution before it is too late.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In their ruling last month, the British judges said there would be a hearing on May 20, once the assurances were submitted, to decide if they were \u201csatisfactory,\u201d and to make a final decision on Mr. Assange\u2019s ability to appeal his extradition.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of Australia has publicly spoken about discussing Mr. Assange\u2019s case with Mr. Biden and urged him to consider Mr. Assange\u2019s release. The U.S. Department of Justice declined to comment on the latest assurances in Mr. Assange\u2019s case.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-798hid etfikam0\">Charlie Savage<!-- --> contributed reporting from Washington.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/04\/16\/world\/europe\/julian-assange-extradition-us-uk.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The possibility that Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder, could be extradited to the United States seemed to edge closer on Tuesday, after American officials sent assurances to British authorities that he would not face the death penalty or be persecuted for his nationality, and that he could seek First Amendment protections. The assurances were the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":28047,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/04\/16\/multimedia\/16uk-assange-zwgk\/16uk-assange-zwgk-facebookJumbo.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[14855,157,8111,18012,221],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28046"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28046"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28046\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28048,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28046\/revisions\/28048"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28047"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}