Ho conosciuto Julian Assange a Oxford, nel luglio del 2010. Si muoveva circospetto, come se si sentisse continuamente seguito. Seduto con le spalle al muro per parlare con qualche amico e un giornalista, non smetteva di lanciare inutili sguardi all’indietro. Sembrava una posa. Ma la sua vita ha mostrato che i rischi che correva erano davvero enormi. Credo che l’esperienza di Edward Snowden abbia creato un’alternativa molto più moderna e nello stesso tempo più tradizionale della sua alla ricerca di documenti riservati. Ma Assange ha avuto un ruolo. Ha sfidato il modo di fare giornalismo – così convenzionale – dei primi anni Duemila con un’idea tecnologica e una pratica piuttosto estrema di lotta alla segretezza. È stato perseguitato in maniera probabilmente sproporzionata. Ora è prigioniero e non se la passa molto bene. Non mi sembra che sia giusto. (Vedi anche, Assange)
Per questo riporto le ultime notizie che arrivano da un gruppo di persone che seguono con attenzione le vicende giudiziarie di Assange:
«Dear friends and colleagues,
As you will no doubt know, Julian Assange appeared for another hearing in court this past week. We are sorry to report that he looked aged and unwell as a result of his continued imprisonment.
The High Court hearing on 11 August, held at the Royal Courts of Justice in central London, was scheduled in order to allow prosecutors on behalf of the U.S. government to challenge an earlier ruling made by Justice Jonathan Swift on July 7 in which he granted the appeal, but limited the arguments to three of the five proposed legal grounds for such a challenge (as elucidated here).
Prosecutors argued that they should be allowed to appeal on all five of the issues raised, and were in fact successful in doing so in front of Lord Justice Timothy Holroyde and Justice Dame Judith Farbey.
The hearing was covered by most of the world’s media, but here is some coverage we found to be insightful, critical and easy to follow:
- Assange High Court appeal: U.S. granted appeal on all grounds, overturning earlier ruling – Tareq Haddad, TareqHaddad.com, August 11
- British High Court expands US Government’s appeal in Assange extradition case – Kevin Gosztola and Mohammed El Maazi, Dissenter, August 11
- Julian Assange could be extradited to the US – Chip Gibbons, Jacobin, August 11
- The end game: WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange is dying in a UK prison – Scott Ludlam, The Monthly, August 1
- For those of you interested in inspecting the corresponding legal documents from the hearings in full, we have attached the defence’s “Notice of Objection to the Appeal” and the prosecution’s “Perfected Grounds of Appeal” for your reference. They are also available online here and here.
- Now that the legal grounds of appeal have been settled, we now proceed to the substantive elements of the appeal process. Two days of hearings have been scheduled for October 27 and 28—taking Assange’s imprisonment to a minimum of two and a half years, though yet to be found guilty of any offence.
- In other recent developments for those that may have missed them, there was a big revelation published in the Icelandic publication Stundin in which it emerged that a key witness in the U.S. prosecution’s case had fabricated his evidence. The U.S. heavily relied on this evidence to assert that Assange was engaged in soliciting hacking of confidential information.
- We believe the article is a strong demonstration that despite 10 years into this prosecution, there are yet many stones that have been left unturned and we urge those of you who have capacity as journalists to continue seeking evidence of discrepancies and foul play. We would encourage you to share these with us at contact@speak-up-for-assange.org and we would be more than glad to circulate them.
- As always, we thank you for your time in reading these updates and we look forward to being in touch again in due course.
- Best wishes,
- Serena, Nicky, Blaž and Tareq
- —
- International journalists’ statement in defence of Julian Assange:
- https://speak-up-for-assange.org/
- Signatory list:
- https://speak-up-for-assange.org/signatures/
- Facebook group:
- https://www.facebook.com/SpeakUpForAssange/
- #JournalistsSpeakUpForAssange»
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