Cross posted from: https://beehaw.org/post/13074556
The country’s parliament recently passed a measure - backed by PM Anthony Albanese - calling for the return of Mr Assange to his native Australia.
The US wants to extradite the 52-year-old from the UK on criminal charges over the leaking of military records.
Mr Assange denies the charges, saying the leaks were an act of journalism.
The president was asked about Australia’s request on Wednesday and said: “We’re considering it.”
I am still not clear what supposed crime he has committed other then pissing powerful people off. He should get a reward for that.
Espionage Act. Which is basically that. Pissing off the War Pigs, specifically.
He published information that “could aid the enemy” and “damage own personnel”. According to the military, that’s a crime, even if (or moreso if) it’s done by revealing war crimes committed by the military itself.
He also published, and was about to publish more, compromising information about a bunch of other people who have lobbying influence over the US government.
And he has got multiple awards… just not from the people he’s pissed off 🙂
He is not an American citizen and he is not in the US. How does US law apply.
He published STOLEN documents. If you want to participate in Civil Disobedience, you have to accept the consequences. He’s not in it for any cause other than fuck you.
By that same logic, can Russia ask Japan to extradite a US citizen because they advocated for LGBTQ+ rights while they were in South Korea? Because that’s basically what’s happening here, I just swapped the offence and the countries involved.
Dude isn’t a US person, wasn’t in the US when he committed the alleged crime, and said alleged crime isn’t a crime where he allegedly committed it. US law isn’t world law.
EVEN IF the guy might’ve been rapist asshole (allegations were fishy as heck), this extradition proceeding is a gross overreach by the US, and the UK should have laughed it out of court. If a country has any leg to stand on regarding extradition, it’s Sweden (I think that’s where he was when he committed all the alleged crimes, both the sexual ones and the wikileaks ones).
“Political figure makes non-committal statement, news at 11”
They did something similar with Chelsea Manning, announced they were “thinking about a pardon” to see if there would be pushback.
It’s proving to be rather embarrassing for the UK, it’s clear to many here how he’s been treated and how much of a stitch up the trial has been. I imagine the US could do without the international attention on this - court cases, more Russia speculation in an election year.
And the “authorities” have made their point: don’t try to take the piss out of us, we will ruin your life even if we don’t get you to trial. Julian Assange’s case will certainly be putting off quite a few people from becoming radical journalists.
Say he was extradited and found guilty to whatever charges, does anyone know what the range of a prison sentence would be? I feel like this dude already unofficially served his time. Just send him back to Australia and tell him to fuck off.
This thread is a garbage fire - a bunch of people who didn’t look anything up (or if they did, they cite no sources, so there’s no evidence they did) spouting a bunch of mutually contradictory shit, all of it upvoted. I will never understand why anyone engages with Lemmy this way.
Here is the list of US charges against Assange, from the actual paperwork charging him.
As you can see here, each of the first 17 charges has a maximum penalty of 10 years (not including fines).
Charge 18 is messier. Under USC 371 the max is 5 years. I believe USC 1030 is also capped at 5 years.
So roughly a 175 year sentence, at cap.
They’re a country that’s known to use torture and secret courts. They still have Guantanamo which is one big human rights violation.
That would be my concern.
It doesn’t matter because US prisons are so bad he would probably die in prison. This is why the UK has been hesitant to extradite him.
I wouldnt be surprised if this is the type of “crime” where whatever they want to happen to him happens.
If they want life or death to stop others from doing similar then that will happen.
Espionage can result in a death penalty but it’s currently the case that the UK (courts) would like a guarantee from the US (lol) that he won’t be executed. Other than that I think it’s over 100 years and they can add more charges when he arrives.
