Assange Show Trial: Craig Murray's daily court reports

[BenDhyan]

Julian Assange could plead guilty to lesser offence to avoid extradition to US

The US government is reportedly considering offering Julian Assange a plea deal under which he would be released from jail in Britain without setting foot in America.

Department of Justice officials are considering allowing the Australian Wikileaks founder to plead guilty to mishandling classified information, which carries a lower sentence than the espionage charges he faces for publishing thousands of classified files on the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

Mr Assange, 52, has been in a protracted legal battle to avoid extradition to the US to face the charges, and is currently imprisoned in HMP Belmarsh, where he has been for almost five years.

The Wall Street Journal reported that officials are drawing up plans for a plea deal with Mr Assange’s lawyers, but have not yet reached an agreement.

If the deal went ahead, the time he has spent in prison in the UK would count towards his US sentence, potentially making his release imminent.

He would also likely be allowed to plead remotely, removing the requirement to attend court in the US.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/ju ... r-BB1kf3Q7

[BenDhyan]

Assange wins right to fight extradition to US

The Wikileaks founder was granted a reprieve, as the US seeks to try him on espionage charges.

A court in London has ruled in favor of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on Tuesday, granting him the opportunity to appeal his extradition to the US. The publisher stands accused of espionage and is facing up to 175 years in jail.

The hearing at the High Court could have been the last opportunity for Assange’s defense team to seek recourse within the British legal system, if the judges had decided against his bid. His attorneys have argued that the American case against him is political in nature, and that extraditing him to the US would put his life and well-being at risk.

Two British justices reviewing the situation decided that there was an arguable case against extradition and ruled that he should be granted a full appeal hearing again.

https://www.rt.com/news/594927-assange- ... mpaign=RSS

[BenDhyan]

Not before time....

WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange Will Plead Guilty in Deal with US and Be Freed from Prison

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange will plead guilty to a felony charge in a deal with the U.S. Justice Department that will free him from prison and resolve a long-running legal saga that spanned multiple continents and centered on the publication of a trove of classified documents, according to court papers filed late Monday.

Assange is scheduled to appear in the federal court in the Mariana Islands, a U.S. commonwealth in the Western Pacific, to plead guilty to an Espionage Act charge of conspiring to unlawfully obtain and disseminate classified national defense information, the Justice Department said in a letter filed in court.

The guilty plea, which must be approved by a judge, brings an abrupt conclusion to a criminal case of international intrigue and to the U.S. government’s years-long pursuit of a publisher whose hugely popular secret-sharing website made him a cause célèbre among many press freedom advocates who said he acted as a journalist to expose U.S. military wrongdoing. Investigators, by contrast, have repeatedly asserted that his actions broke laws meant to protect sensitive information and put the country’s national security at risk.

He is expected to return to Australia after his plea and sentencing, which is scheduled for Wednesday morning, local time in Saipan, the largest island in the Mariana Islands. The hearing is taking place there because of Assange’s opposition to traveling to the continental U.S. and the court’s proximity to Australia.

The deal ensures that Assange will admit guilt while also sparing him from any additional prison time. He had spent years hiding out in the Ecuadorian embassy in London after Swedish authorities sought his arrest on rape allegations before being locked up in the United Kingdom.

Prosecutors have agreed to a sentence of the five years Assange has already spent in a high-security British prison while fighting to avoid extradition to the U.S. to face charges, a process that has played out in a series of hearings in London. Last month, he won the right to appeal an extradition order after his lawyers argued that the U.S. government provided “blatantly inadequate” assurances that he would have the same free speech protections as an American citizen if extradited from Britain.

He is expected to return to Australia after his plea and sentencing, which is scheduled for Wednesday morning, local time in Saipan, the largest island in the Mariana Islands. The hearing is taking place there because of Assange’s opposition to traveling to the continental U.S. and the court’s proximity to Australia.

Assange has been heralded by many around the world as a hero who brought to light military wrongdoing in Iraq and Afghanistan. Among the files published by WikiLeaks was a video of a 2007 Apache helicopter attack by American forces in Baghdad that killed 11 people, including two Reuters journalists.

But his reputation was also tarnished by rape allegations, which he has denied.

The Justice Department’s indictment unsealed in 2019 accused Assange of encouraging and helping U.S. Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning steal diplomatic cables and military files that WikiLeaks published in 2010. Prosecutors had accused Assange of damaging national security by publishing documents that harmed the U.S. and its allies and aided its adversaries.

The case was lambasted by press advocates and Assange supporters. Federal prosecutors defended it as targeting conduct that went way beyond that of a journalist gathering information, amounting to an attempt to solicit, steal and indiscriminately publish classified government documents. It was brought even though the Obama administration Justice Department had passed on prosecuting him years earlier.

The plea agreement comes months after President Joe Biden said he was considering a request from Australia to drop the U.S. push to prosecute Assange.

[JackRiddler]

@wikileaks
JULIAN ASSANGE IS FREE

Julian Assange is free. He left Belmarsh maximum security prison on the morning of 24 June, after having spent 1901 days there. He was granted bail by the High Court in London and was released at Stansted airport during the afternoon, where he boarded a plane and departed the UK.

This is the result of a global campaign that spanned grass-roots organisers, press freedom campaigners, legislators and leaders from across the political spectrum, all the way to the United Nations. This created the space for a long period of negotiations with the US Department of Justice, leading to a deal that has not yet been formally finalised. We will provide more information as soon as possible.

After more than five years in a 2x3 metre cell, isolated 23 hours a day, he will soon reunite with his wife Stella Assange, and their children, who have only known their father from behind bars.

WikiLeaks published groundbreaking stories of government corruption and human rights abuses, holding the powerful accountable for their actions. As editor-in-chief, Julian paid severely for these principles, and for the people's right to know.

As he returns to Australia, we thank all who stood by us, fought for us, and remained utterly committed in the fight for his freedom.

Julian's freedom is our freedom.

[More details to follow]

[Joe Hillshoist]

Finally. What a disgraceful debacle this whole thing was.

[Elvis]

Great news!! A bright spot.

[BenDhyan]

[SEE COMPLETE 23 PAGE PLEA DEAL HERE]

[BenDhyan]

Tucker down under....

[stickdog99]

It occurs to me that one's view on Julian Assange is the ultimate political litmus test.

Because of other sorts of intense tribalism, the power of certain lobbies and political interest groups, and complete and total bias of mass media, issues such as COVID authoritarianism, abortion rights, trans rights. the I-P conflict, and even the Ukraine war will all necessarily divide people.

But what is anyone's excuse for wanting to punish Julian Assange further merely for being one of the best if not the very best overall actual muckraking journalist of imperial excesses in the last 40 years?

The only reasons I can think of are that you are an imperial cheerleader who revels in punishing anyone who dares to expose the worst imperial excesses, you have zero ability to deviate one iota from the talking points of the BlueAnon vs, QAnon political circus, and/or you are totally ignorant of the entire situation.

Does anybody here know anyone in person who knows anything about this case and still actually wants to see Assange punished further?

[Grizzly]

Julian Assange - The CIA Tried to Assassinate Me
Julian Assange gives his first public statement since his release, and describes the CIA plot to assassinate him.
https://youtu.be/Aj0pD5k9uLw?si=xDefGlkAAmaY0Eup


Note: Itried to find Slad's original thread on the blue eyed devil, blond, but NOTHING came up.

[Grizzly]

Julian Assange speaks as a free man and drops a few CIA bombshells that should alarm every American whose DNA is being collected at birth. The CIA is now focused on total control of social media and what YOU believe.
https://citizensnewsbureau.wordpress.co ... dia-and-w/

[Grizzly]

Julian Assange Suffers Stroke; Father Says He Was Vaxxed In Prison
https://www.informationliberation.com/?id=62735
Yes this is old, but I never heard anything nor saw anything it about it? And I like to think I keep up on stuff like this... nor did RSS/google ever show it. Did anyone else know this?

[Grizzly]

Julian Assange files complaint against Nobel Foundation over Machado win. #NobelPrize

https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/2 ... achado-win

He could have sit out the rest of his life, but he's a warrior.

[Harvey]

^

[Grizzly]

I'm Eugene Jarecki, maker of The Six Billion Dollar Man, about the U.S. government's war on Julian Assange.

https://www.thesixbilliondollarman.com/