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'Political fix' needed for Wikileaks' Assange: lawyer

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A lawyer for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said an "urgent political fix" is needed in his case because legal appeals against his extradition to the United States could continue for another decade and his health is declining.

Capitalist democracies are just as good at wearing down and killing their political enemies who expose their inner workings as are authoritarian dictatorships.

-1 ( +8 / -9 )

US is just ashamed that it could not hide the crap they did from the rest of the world and are now trying to kill the messenger!

1 ( +10 / -9 )

Wikileaks is (or, at least, has the potential to be) good, Assange seems like a jerk.

-1 ( +4 / -5 )

The United States and Western Europe, except for Spain, don't have political prisoners.

0 ( +3 / -3 )

Traitor - end of story.

-6 ( +3 / -9 )

Assange seems like a jerk

I agree, but the issue of extradition to the US affects all UK residents.

Conventionally, extradition was used against those who committed a crime in one country (e.g rob a bank in New York) and then escaped to another country. But now it used against those who were not in the country where the alleged crime was committed. So do I have to obey US laws while living in the UK? It would seem so.

There was a case about 10 years ago of a couple from Scotland who were extradited to the US for selling red phosphorous and iodine online to people in the US. These chemicals are used to make methamphetamine. It is illegal to sell those chemicals in the US but not in the UK. If any crime had been committed, should a trial not have taken place in the UK?

6 ( +7 / -1 )

Assange should not be sent to the US where he has committed no crimes.

6 ( +7 / -1 )

I don’t care about Assange, I think he is a tosser and a coward. I do think the UK should deport him, but I fear his Messiah complex will be superseded by his martyr complex. Send him to the US, send him back to Australia, just get rid of him and maybe his whiney conspiracy theorist supporters in the UK will shut up. They, and Assange himself, refuse to acknowledge he caused all this by his jumping bail and hiding in the Ecuadorian Embassy until they has enough and evicted him.

-6 ( +0 / -6 )

Agreeing here with Express sister above.

This guy though, seems to be missing empathy and common sense. He acts as if he’s above the laws and mores of various countries, walks away from legal requirements, hides, and wastes everyone’s time with endless extended expectations. And who pays for the whole circus?

Bad news.

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

Julian claims “urgent political fix" is needed in his case because legal appeals against his extradition to the United States could continue for another decade and his health is declining.”

Thats Julian’s own fault. He ran from justice, jumped bail and attempted to game the system.

He has the right to continue to fight legal battles against his extradition to the US, but if he does so, that’s on him.

If he wants to shorten the process, he can agree to extradition, get an attorney and avail himself of a jury trial. He isn’t doing that because he thinks he is above the law and does not want to be held to account for his actions.

And while I usually agree with Wallace, here I will disagree:

Assange is accused of serious violations of US law. Not being in the United States when he allegedly committed said crimes does not absolve him of potential criminal liability.

And no, this is not even remotely analogous to say, saying bad things about a foreign dictator and then being charged and extradited to said country.

Hes not a journalist. He’s not protected under the first amendment as the Washington Post was for publishing the Pentagon Papers.

No political solution is necessary because a valid judicial remedy is available.

No, Julian wants a “political solution” because he’s losing and he is very likely guilty of the crimes of which he is accused.

-3 ( +1 / -4 )

Is it a crime now to show the truth?

Looks like it. Old Mike Pompeo's CIA hatched plans to kidnap and murder the journalist Assange, who is guilty of nothing more than exposing American war crimes, including the murders of Reuters journalists. Lots of people seem to be fine with murdering journalists these days. What a world we live in....

2 ( +4 / -2 )

Yes, that's what it's all about, Alfie, in a nutshell. The blatantly covert politics driving the outrageous treatment of Assange who had the temerity to expose the crimes swept under the carpet by the usual guilty suspects in self-styled western democracies are mirror images of the egregious human rights violations perpetrated by the one run by the poster-boy for openly authoritarian regimes, Putin.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

I would be concerned about extraditing Assange for a crime he never committed on any American soil that could be used for any future British person being extradited for crimes not committed in the US.

Today, in the case of the American woman, Anne Sacoolas, 45, who killed a teenager, 19-year-old Harry Dunn on his motorbike, pleaded guilty via video link, but the US refused to extradite her. Will she now return to the UK to face her punishment?

What is Assange guilty of? Exposing war crimes.

1 ( +3 / -2 )

Sh1mon M4sadaToday 04:52 pm JST

Traitor - end of story.

Teh term 'traitor' is plainly wrong.

Assange is Australian citizen and not US-citizen.

You can be only a traitor of your own country.

UK should send him back to Australia.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

American laws are litigated in America courts

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

A political fix,is called a conspiracy, politician cannot circumvent law for political reasons

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

I don't like the man or what he did in his so-called quest - especially allegedly rape - but he's served enough time.

Deport him to Oz.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

How is he even still in jail?? His term ended last year but he has been kept in infinitely…

0 ( +0 / -0 )

How is he even still in jail?? His term ended last year but he has been kept in infinitely…

Oh, I don’t know…. His demonstrated tendency to jump bail to avoid trial?

He’s still being held because he’s accused of a crime whether he or anyone else likes it or not and would likely abscond to avoid facing it - likely to a place harder to drag him out of than a Central American Embassy where he was no longer wanted.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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