There were nightmare judges in England. Judge Jeffries is a hangman in the time of King James II, few people left him. Judge Dredd - true, cartoon character, but not from scratch grew. Now Judge Vanessa Baraitser has added to these legends. She single-handedly handles the case of the extradition of Julian Assange to the clutches of American "justice." Yesterday, she refused to release the creator of WikiLeaks from prison on bail, although the coronavirus is raging in British prisons, and Julian is in poor health. “A pandemic is no reason to release a prisoner on bail,” she said, quite in the style of Judge Dredd. In May, Assange will have another meeting with Madame Baraitser - the extradition process is going so fast and fast. The British and Americans hope that Assange will die during the trial and pre-trial detention, and are doing everything for this.
I remind the reader that English justice has no reason to keep Julian in prison. A warrant was issued ten years ago for his arrest in Sweden for sexual assault. The case of violence crumbled. Sweden withdrew the warrant and closed the case, because the women who went as victims in this case did not want to sue the tall, handsome man with whom he was friends quite voluntarily. But England still continued to pursue him - for escaping from bail at the Embassy of Ecuador he was given a year in prison, although they usually cost a fine.
Now Assange is sitting in the most terrible English prison in Belmarsh, designed for dangerous terrorists. She is called the English Guantanamo. Assange is led to underground court corridors, searched multiple times on the way, and finally placed in an armored glass box. The defense demanded that Assange be allowed to sit with the lawyers, as is customary, but Judge Baraitser rejected the request. She said that for this it is necessary to release the defendant on bail, and she will not allow this. Not only the defense, but also the prosecution told her that this was not required, that she could allow him to sit, like everyone else, with lawyers, that she could order the prison authorities to stop continuous searches and humiliation ... But Baraitser neglected them words.
The task of lawyers seemed simple: under an agreement between the US and Britain, political prisoners are not subject to extradition. But Baraitser said that her extradition treaty was not of interest - it was supposedly part of international law, and she judged by domestic English law.
The court itself is located next to the prison, it is the judicial building of Belmarsh prison. Going to court is very difficult, there are very few places for the public. The media practically do not cover the process, and what the journalists present in the courtroom write is completely dictated by the judge and the prosecution. The defense arguments are not even mentioned in the newspapers.
We would not know what was going on there if it were not for the wonderful Scotsman Craig Murray, a former ambassador, an employee of the English Foreign Ministry, a fighter for truth and a dissident in the best sense of the word.
He was the first to bring down the Hiley Likely version in the Skripal case, challenged a fiction with a chemical attack in Syria and supported Assange.
He managed to get into the courtroom, although for this he had to stand in line in the rain from six in the morning, and then published his detailed report on the abuse of English justice.
It would seem that President Trump should not only stop persecuting Assange, but also award him the Order: if it were not for the publication of WikiLeaks about the conspiracy at the top of the Democratic Party and the crimes of Hillary Clinton, Trump should not be president. But the American president does not want to quarrel with his special services, and he also does not want to give the Democrats a reason to accuse him of cooperating with Russia. Therefore, the process continues, and Assange, meanwhile, is bedridden in Belmarsh's cell.
Hundreds of Englishmen marched yesterday to demand freedom for Assange, but no results so far.
Here we can recall how ten years ago, Russian conspiracy theorists claimed that WikiLeaks and Assange were just a special CIA operation. And even when he was sitting in the embassy of Ecuador, they said that he was actually resting on the Riviera. And although the absurdity of their allegations was obvious from the very beginning, they managed to confuse many Russians. Because of them, Assange did not enjoy the patronage of Russia. However, he did not seek this protection. A free dissident, he did not act on the orders of a special service, but was guided by a voice of conscience and published what he managed to get.
Recall the persecution of Sergeant Bradley Manning, the man who handed Assange the secrets of the State Department. After several long years in prison, he was released after he changed sex and became Chelsea Manning. But then he was arrested again - so that he would testify against Assange.
So persecuted dissidents and fighters for the truth in the "free world" ...
The author’s point of view may not coincide with the position of the publisher.