ASSANGE EXTRADITION: Indictment on Political Offense Runs Counter to
Extradition Treaty
February 20, 2020
The WikiLeaks publisher was indicted for a political offense, writes
Marjorie Cohn, which is forbidden by the two-nation treaty.
Assange being forced out of embassy, April 11, 2019. (YouTube)
Julian Assange getting dragged out of Ecuadorian embassy, April 11, 2019.
(YouTube)
By Marjorie Cohn
Truthout
The Trump administration is seeking extradition of WikiLeaks founder Julian
Assange to the United States for trial on charges carrying 175 years in
prison. On Feb. 24, a court in the U.K. will hold a hearing to determine
whether to grant President Donald Trumps request. The treaty between the
U.S. and the U.K. prohibits extradition for a political offense. Assange
was indicted for exposing U.S. war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan. That is a
classic political offense. Moreover, Assanges extradition would violate the
legal prohibition against sending a person to a country where he is in
danger of being tortured.
WikiLeaks Exposed Evidence of U.S. War Crimes
In 2010 and 2011, WikiLeaks published classified documents provided by U.S.
Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning. They contained 90,000 reports
about the war in Afghanistan, including the Afghan War Logs, which
documented more civilian casualties by coalition forces than the U.S.
military had previously reported.
(thierry ehrmann, Flickr)
WikiLeaks also published nearly 400,000 field reports about the Iraq War,
which contained evidence of U.S. war crimes, over 15,000 previously
unreported deaths of Iraqi civilians, and the systematic murder, torture,
rape and abuse by the Iraqi army and authorities that were ignored by U.S.
forces.
In addition, WikiLeaks published the Guantánamo Files, 779 secret reports
that revealed the U.S. governments systematic violation of the Geneva
Conventions and the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or
Degrading Treatment or Punishment, by abusing nearly 800 men and boys, ages
14 to 89.
One of the most notorious releases by WikiLeaks was the 2007 Collateral
Murder video, which showed a U.S. Army Apache helicopter target and fire on
unarmed civilians in Baghdad. More than 12 civilians were killed, including
two Reuters reporters and a man who came to rescue the wounded. Two children
were injured. Then a U.S. Army tank drove over one of the bodies, severing
it in half. Those acts constitute three separate war crimes prohibited by
the Geneva Conventions and the U.S. Army Field Manual.
Manning was arrested in 2010 and held in solitary confinement for 23 hours a
day for 11 months. She was forced to stand nude during daily inspections.
The former United Nations special rapporteur on torture said her treatment
was cruel, inhuman and degrading, and possibly constituted torture. Manning
was sentenced to 35 years in prison, and after she had served seven years,
former President Barack Obama commuted her sentence as he left office.
Two years later, in May 2019, Manning was jailed for refusing to answer
questions before a grand jury about Assange and WikiLeaks. She remains in
custody.
On Dec. 31, 2019, Nils Melzer, UN special rapporteur on torture and other
cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, released a letter he
had sent to the U.S. government expressing serious concern at the reported
use of coercive measures against Ms. Manning, particularly given the history
of her previous conviction and ill-treatment in detention. He said her
incarceration amounted to torture and urged that she be released without
delay.
Two days later, Manning pledged to stay the course, saying, My
long-standing objection to the immoral practice of throwing people in jail
without charge or trial, for the sole purpose of forcing them to testify
before a secret, government-run investigative panel, remains strong.
Facing 175 Years in Prison if Extradited
Wall portrait of Julian Assange. (thierry ehrmann/flickr)
Meanwhile, Sweden issued an arrest warrant in 2010 for Assange on alleged
rape and sexual molestation allegations. Assange was questioned by Swedish
prosecutors and then left for the U.K., where he was arrested and later
released on house arrest.
After Swedens request for extradition of Assange was granted by the U.K.
Supreme Court in 2012, he was given asylum in the Ecuadorian embassy in
London, where he lived for seven years. A new Ecuadorian government revoked
Assanges asylum in April 2019 and allowed U.K. authorities to enter the
embassy and arrest him.
In 2017, Sweden dropped its investigation of Assange. On May 1, 2019, he was
sentenced to 50 weeks in jail by the U.K. court for jumping bail and now
faces extradition to the United States. Assange stands charged by the Trump
administration with 17 counts of violating the Espionage Act and conspiracy
with Manning to crack a password on a Defense Department computer. He could
be sentenced to 175 years in prison.
Assanges health has severely deteriorated. On May 31, 2019, UN Special
Rapporteur Nils Melzer declared that Assange exhibited signs of prolonged
exposure to psychological torture. During his years of isolation in the
Ecuadorian embassy, the U.K. government denied him permission to go to a
hospital for treatment, resulting in seriously worsening medical conditions.
In 20 years of work with victims of war, violence and political persecution
I have never seen a group of democratic States ganging up to deliberately
isolate, demonise and abuse a single individual for such a long time and
with so little regard for human dignity and the rule of law, Melzer said.
Treaty Forbids Extradition for Political Offenses
The 2003 extradition treaty between the U.S. and the U.K. states,
Extradition shall not be granted if the offense for which extradition is
requested is a political offense. It is the requested state (in this
case, the U.K.) that determines that the request [by the U.S.] was
politically motivated.
Although there is no clear definition of political offense, it routinely
includes treason, sedition and espionage, and offenses directed against
state power. Assange published true information obtained from a
whistleblower, making the charges against him political in nature, rather
than criminal, Robert Mackey wrote at The Intercept.
Nils Melzer. (UN)
The Obama administration did not indict Assange because it didnt want to
establish a precedent that could chill investigative reporting about
national security matters by treating it as a crime, according to Charlie
Savage of The New York Times.
Obama could not distinguish between what WikiLeaks did and what news media
organizations like the Times do in soliciting and publishing information
they obtain that the government wants to keep secret, Savage noted. Indeed,
many of the documents WikiLeaks released were published in collaboration
with the Times, The Guardian, Le Monde, El País and Der Spiegel. The outlets
published articles based on documents WikiLeaks had released, including
logs of significant combat events in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Assange is being targeted for political offenses because WikiLeaks
published evidence of U.S. war crimes. He cannot be extradited to the United
States under the terms of the U.S.-U.K. extradition treaty.
Convention Against Torture
The Convention against Torture has a provision called non-refoulement that
forbids extradition to a country where there are substantial grounds to
believe a person would be in danger of being tortured. Since Manning was
tortured by being held in solitary confinement for 11 months, it is likely
Assange would face a similar fate if he were extradited to the United
States.
Moreover, a country has a duty to refuse extradition when it would violate
fundamental rights, such as the right to be free from torture and cruel
treatment.
The Johannesburg Principles of national security, freedom of expression and
access to information, which were adopted by a group of experts in 1995,
have been widely cited by judges, lawyers, journalists, academics and civil
society. They provide, No person may be punished on national security
grounds for disclosure of information if the public interest in knowing the
information outweighs the harm from the disclosure.
Significantly, WikiLeaks publication of the Iraq War documents, including
evidence of Iraqi torture centers the U.S. had established, actually saved
lives. After the Iraqi government refused to grant civil and criminal
immunity to U.S. soldiers, Obama was compelled to withdraw U.S. troops from
Iraq.
Deny Extradition of Assange to US
Assanges extradition hearing will begin on Feb. 24 in Judge Vanessa
Baraitsers London courtroom. More than 70 lawyers and legal academics, as
well as at least 12 former heads of state, have signed a letter that will be
sent to the U.K. Home Secretary, stating, The fact that the charges are
brought under the Espionage Act further reveals that this is a matter of a
pure political offence [citation omitted]. There is broad international
consensus that such offences should not be subject to extradition [citation
omitted].
Veterans for Peace and the National Lawyers Guild have endorsed a petition
urging the judge to deny extradition because Assange is charged with a
political offense. It reads, The essence of Assanges crime is that he
published documents and videos which revealed the reality of US military and
political actions.
Assange has been awarded Consortium Newss Gary Webb Freedom of the Press
Award for practicing the highest order of journalism revealing crimes of
the state.
The Trump administration singled out Assange to send a clear message to
journalists that they publish material critical of U.S. policy at their
peril. The extradition of Assange would mean the end of journalistic
investigations into the inner workings of power, Chris Hedges wrote at
Truthdig.
By the very terms of the U.S.-U.K. extradition treaty, and consistent with
the Torture Conventions non-refoulement provision, Judge Baraister must
deny Trumps request for the Assanges extradition to the United States.
Click here for information about how to oppose Assanges extradition.
To sign the lawyers/academics letter to the U.K. Home Secretary, send an
email to lawyers4assange@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx and you will receive a copy of the
letter.
Marjorie Cohn is professor emerita at Thomas Jefferson School of Law, former
president of the National Lawyers Guild, deputy secretary general of the
International Association of Democratic Lawyers and a member of the advisory
board of Veterans for Peace. Her most recent book is Drones and Targeted
Killing: Legal, Moral, and Geopolitical Issues
