A week ago, police officers carried WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange from the Ecuadorian embassy in London. Since then he has been detained in the maximum security prison Belmarsh in London and threatens to be extradited to the USA.
1. What is Julian Assange accused of?
So far, the American prosecutor Assange accused of "conspiracy to penetrate computers." Last week, the six-page indictment, dated March 2018, was published. It involves obtaining and distributing hundreds of thousands of confidential Iraqi and Afghan war documents, Guantanamo documents, and embassy despatches. Assange had received the material from whistleblower Chelsea Manning, who was working as an analyst for the US military.
On or about March 8, 2010, Assange is said to have agreed to help Manning crack an access code for a secret computer of the US government - apparently unsuccessful. "Cracking the password would have allowed Manning to log in to the computer with a foreign username," the indictment said. It also states, "Assange has knowingly obtained secret documents from Manning with the aim of publishing them on WikiLeaks." In addition, Assange should have motivated Manning to look for more documents.
The allegation of "conspiring to penetrate computers" against Assange is in a sense a light version of what lawyers had expected. In the event of a conviction, Assange's charge would result in a maximum of five years' imprisonment, according to the US Department of Justice.
2. On what basis could Assange still be charged?
In the past, a number of whistleblowers in the US, including ex-NSA employee Thomas Drake, Pentagon paper-boy Daniel Ellsberg, and Chelsea Manning, have been charged on the basis of the Espionage Act, an anti-espionage law from the time of the First World War. The law provides for draconian penalties for the disclosure of secret information, including the death penalty.
Already the government under President Barack Obama had considered Assange on the basis of the "Espionage Act", but decided against it because it would create a precedent that also affects investigative journalists who work with secret documents. "The prosecution of a publisher for the publication of truthful information would be a first in American history and unconstitutional," warns Ben Wizner of the US civil rights organization ACLU.
"I think the US has finally realized how problematic the 'Espionage Act' is and how problematic it would be to use it against a publisher instead of a source," says American lawyer Jesselyn Radack to SPIEGEL. She represents whistleblowers like Thomas Drake and Edward Snowden. "But just because Assange is not yet charged under the espionage law does not mean that the United States will refrain from such a charge if Assange is to be successfully extradited."
3. What is known about the ongoing investigations?
A Grand Jury, a jury in Alexandria, Virginia, has been investigating WikiLeaks for years - details are unknown. The jury will examine prosecution evidence, presented to the public prosecutor's office, without public scrutiny, and may even hear witnesses. On this basis, they decide if an indictment is allowed.
Several people around WikiLeaks have already been questioned, or at least asked for a statement, including former WikiLeaks spokesman Daniel Domscheit-Berg. According to a letter from prosecutor Tracy Doherty-McCormick to Domscheit-Berg in March 2018, according to a "time" report, the investigation into WikiLeaks is being conducted for "unauthorized preservation and dissemination of secret information" - a charge that is quite right could fall under the "Espionage Act".
It is also being investigated whether and to what extent WikiLeaks publications have exposed the identities of local US military personnel and diplomats or sources and endangered those affected. According to a recent WikiLeaks volunteer witness interview, according to a New York Times report, the interviewees were particularly interested in how the team discussed the processing of secret documents.
4. What about whistleblower Chelsea Manning?
Whistleblower Chelsea Manning was taken into custody in early March for refusing to testify before the grand jury. Manning is detained at the Truesdale Detention Center in Alexandria, Virginia, where she was initially held under solitary confinement for 28 days.
Manning's lawyer team has filed an appeal and requested their release. The lawyers had previously demanded that Manning only gets a house arrest because of her health condition, instead of having to be in detention.
"It has nothing to do with a fair trial when important evidence gathering takes place in this form, and a witness has only a chance to speak or be imprisoned," says attorney Wolfgang Kaleck of the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights ( ECCHR) in Berlin, who also represents Edward Snowden.
5. What role does Sweden play?
More than 70 British parliamentarians signed an open letter on Friday by MEP Stella Creasy (Labor) demanding that Assange be extradited to Sweden instead of to the US - in case Sweden requests extradition.
Assange's rape allegations against Assange were suspended in Sweden in May 2017, and the warrant for his arrest was lifted. It was "all means to carry out the investigation, exhausted," it was said in a statement by the Swedish prosecutor. Ecuador - which Assange had granted asylum - was unlikely to be supported.
The Swedish applicant has now requested a retrial of the investigation. "We will investigate the case to determine how to proceed," Deputy Attorney General Eva-Marie Persson announced. But she also says, "The investigation has not yet resumed, and we do not know today if that will be the case, and we can not set a timetable on when such a decision will be made." The limitation period already expires in August 2020.
If Sweden applied for extradition, Assange could actually be extradited - but that would not save him from later US access. "The fact is that the Swedish extradition request came earlier in the form of the European arrest warrant," says Wolfgang Kaleck. "Therefore, it may happen that Assange is first delivered to Sweden and there takes place the negotiation, which will end anyway." According to Kaleck, however, the US could ask again to take him into extradition detention, "and then make a request for extradition." The lawyer Jesselyn Radack believes, however, that Sweden is currently "technically" the first right to extradition - "but would like to give in to the wishes of the US".
6. What's going on in Ecuador?
From Ecuador, the country that had revoked Assange's asylum, allowing it to be arrested by the British police, there are several allegations against WikiLeaks. President Lenín Moreno claims that Assange broke the rules of his host's house, set up a "center for espionage" in the London embassy in Ecuador, and intervened "in other states' processes. Ecuador's Interior Minister María Paula Romo also accuses WikiLeaks of "interfering in domestic politics" in Ecuador.
President Moreno is not only struggling with political and economic problems in the country against him is also being investigated for corruption allegations. The "INA Papers" play a key role, recently leaked documents. In addition to documents linking the President to offshore companies and money laundering, private photos of Moreno's iPhone circulate online. The government apparently believes that WikiLeaks was involved in the publications.
However, according to Jonas Wolff of the Leibniz Institute Hessian Foundation for Peace and Conflict Research (HSFK), Ecuador's decision to lift the asylum of Julian Assange had long been announced. "Assange was a legacy of the previous government, with which one was unhappy in many cases," says Wolff the SPIEGEL. "The conditions at the embassy were not good, and the Assange conflict was inconvenient for the government, and my guess is that the government wanted to end it, and now it justifies and wants to justify it."
Moreno has also taken a different course in domestic policy and foreign policy than his predecessor Correa, the political scientist said: "Ecuador is approaching much closer to the US." On current speculation about any rewards that Ecuador might have received for the cancellation of Assange's asylum, Wolff says he is unaware that there were "special promises".
A good relationship with the US could certainly help the country. On Sunday, President Moreno announced on Twitter the increase of a World Bank loan by another 500 million US dollars. Ecuador has "regained international trust," said the president.
7. What is behind the arrest of an IT expert in Ecuador?
Just hours after Assange's arrest, police arrested 36-year-old Swedish developer Ola Bini in the capital, Quito. Ecuador's Interior Minister Romo said he should be a "close associate" of Assange.
Bini's lawyer and his backers disagree and criticize the circumstances of the arrest. "The police did not have a valid arrest warrant, he was denied access to legal counsel for 17 hours, and he did not get a translator, even though his Spanish is rudimentary," says Suzie Gilbert, spokeswoman for the supporters team. Sweden was only informed after 15 hours about the arrest of his citizen.
Ola Bini has been living in Ecuador for six years and works for the non-profit organization Centro de Autonomia Digital in Quito, which works for open source software and data protection. "As a lawyer and privacy activist, Ola Julian visited Assange several times at the Ecuadorian embassy in London," says Suzie Gilbert. "But he does not work for WikiLeaks and has never done so, and the allegations that he has conspired against the Ecuadorian government and hacked their computer systems are false and ridiculous."
Bini is facing 90 days pre-trial detention, no bail has been granted. His bank accounts have also been banned according to Suzie Gilbert.
8. What's next?
From the time of the arrest, the US has 60 days - until mid-June - to file a formal extradition request. This would then have to contain all the allegations on the basis of Assange would be charged with an extradition to the United States. "If extradition is granted, states must agree on a time and place to surrender the wanted person," the US-UK delivery contract says.
"The extradition process can take a long time," says lawyer Wolfgang Kaleck. "It's very complicated legal issues, the details depend on the exact delivery request."
Even Jesselyn Radack expected "not necessarily and certainly not soon" an extradition to the United States. "This process usually takes a long time to worm its way through the courts and then through all appeals," says Radack. "It will take years." According to the decision, Julian Assange Radack would probably have to wait in prison.