Demonstration on February 28 by supporters of the release of Julian Assange.

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James Veysey / REX / SIPA

After several months of an interruption prolonged by the pandemic of new coronavirus, the British justice resumes Monday the examination of the request for extradition of the founder of Wikileaks Julian Assange, claimed by the United States which wants to judge him for the diffusion 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 more than 700,000 classified documents on American military and diplomatic activities, in particular in Iraq and Afghanistan.

He faces 175 years in prison.

Extradition, "death penalty" for his lawyer

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 became his partner, told The Times on Saturday.

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

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

An "almost certain" call

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-day hearing held in February, Julian Assange appeared at times confused, struggling to maintain his attention.

One of the lawyers of the founder of Wikileaks, Edward Fitzgerald, had before the judge drawn up against prosecutions motivated by “political reasons” and therefore null, insofar as the American-British agreement “expressly” prohibits 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”.

Debate on Assange's activities

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 must be protected as such.

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 Eric Dupond-Moretti, who has since hung up the dress to become Minister of Justice.

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