Julian Assange's extradition trial resumes.

After several months of an interruption prolonged by the pandemic of new coronavirus, the British justice reopens Monday, September 7 the request for extradition of the founder of WikiLeaks Julian Assange, claimed by the United States who want to judge him for the dissemination of hundreds of thousands of confidential documents.

The 49-year-old Australian is being prosecuted in particular for espionage by the American justice system, for having disseminated from 2010 onwards more than 700,000 classified documents on American military and diplomatic activities, in particular in Iraq and Afghanistan.

He faces 175 years in prison.

A "political" procedure

The United States accuses the founder of WikiLeaks of having endangered sources of American services.

Assange's lawyers denounce a "political" procedure based on "lies".

Ahead of the resumption in London of the hearing, which is set to last three or four weeks, his supporters called for a protest outside the Old Bailey Criminal Court on Monday morning.

Julian Assange is currently imprisoned in London's Belmarsh High Security Prison, where his conditions of detention have been denounced by the UN rapporteur on torture.

His extradition would amount to a "death penalty," his lawyer Stella Moris, who has become his partner, told The Times on Saturday.

The 37-year-old fears Julian Assange will end his life and the two children she had with him while he was reclusive at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London will grow up without their father.

Making Julian Assange an "Example"

The founder of Wikileaks was arrested in April 2019 after seven years behind the walls of the Ecuadorian diplomatic representation, where he had taken refuge after violating the conditions of his bail, fearing extradition to the United States.

It is up to the British courts to determine whether the American request for extradition submitted to it meets a certain number of legal criteria, and in particular if it is not disproportionate or incompatible with human rights.

But whatever the decision, it is "almost certain" that it will be appealed by the party which will not have succeeded, underlined to AFP John Rees, one of the persons in charge of the campaign against Assange's extradition.

During the four days of hearings which were held in February, Julian Assange appeared at times confused, having difficulty in maintaining his attention.

One of the lawyers of the founder of Wikileaks, Edward Fitzgerald, had before the judge drawn up against a lawsuit motivated by "political reasons" and thus null, insofar as the American-British agreement prohibits "expressly" the extraditions for "political offenses".

The lawyer accused US President Donald Trump of wanting to make his client an "example" in his "war on investigative journalists."

Endangering American sources

For his part, the representative of the United States James Lewis argued that the founder of Wikileaks "is not indicted for having disclosed embarrassing or embarrassing information", but for endangering the lives of American sources by publishing this crowd of documents.

Assange is responsible for "one of the largest compromises of classified information in the history of the United States," he denounced.

Among the published documents was a video showing civilians killed by US gunship fire in Iraq in July 2007, including two journalists from Reuters.

At the heart of the debate is also the question of whether Julian Assange carries out journalistic activities, which should be protected as such.

Forty human rights and press freedom organizations recently called for his "immediate release".

The call for Paris to grant Julian Assange political asylum was renewed last month by a French association campaigning for the rights of prisoners, Robin des Lois.

A request ardently pleaded last February by his French lawyer Éric Dupond-Moretti, who has since hung up the dress to become Minister of Justice.

With AFP

The summary of the week

France 24 invites you to come back to the news that marked the week

I subscribe

Take international news everywhere with you!

Download the France 24 application

google-play-badge_FR