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UK Home Sec kick-starts US request to extradite ex-WikiLeaker Assange


steven36

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Sajid Javid inks court papers for hearing tomorrow

 

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UK Home Secretary Sajid Javid revealed this morning that he has signed papers to have Julian Assange extradited to the US.

 

Speaking on BBC radio earlier today, Javid said: "There's an extradition request from the US that is before the courts tomorrow but yesterday I signed the extradition order and certified it and that will be going in front of the courts tomorrow."

 

Javid's certifying of the US extradition request lodged this week is the first formal step in having Assange sent across the pond. The next phase is tomorrow, when Belmarsh Magistrates' Court will set a date for a full extradition hearing.

 

After that, assuming a district judge (full-time professional magistrate) OKs the extradition, Javid himself will make the final decision on whether or not to send the one-time chief WikiLeaker to America, as UK.gov's website explains. It is almost certain Assange will file an appeal to the High Court after the district judge's ruling, and again (as the law allows) after the Home Secretary's final decision.

 

Avenging US government agents have long wanted Assange in their clutches because of his website WikiLeaks. As world+dog knows, WikiLeaks published classified material that mostly came from the US government, including the infamous "Collateral Murder" footage from gun cameras aboard American attack helicopters in the Middle East, depicting US pilots killing unarmed civilians.

 

It also published thousands of entirely unredacted US diplomatic cables, exposing the nation's foreign policy workings and causing it severe embarrassment in the process.

 

Sweden, which previously wanted Assange over allegations of sexual assault, abandoned its attempt to get its hands on the Australian national a week ago after a local court decided not to grant prosecutors an EU Arrest Warrant. That would have bypassed normal extradition protections in UK law. Assange's fans have always maintained that the Swedish proceedings were a front to have him extradited on to America.

 

Assange is charged in the US with 18 counts including publishing classified material, collaborating with ex-US Army leaker Chelsea Manning, and various other crimes. In UK law, the Americans must promise only to try Assange on the charges they have published so far before he can be handed over – and the possibility of the death sentence would automatically bar his extradition. So far the WikiLeaker has not been charged with capital crimes.

 

In his defence, Assange is understood to be claiming that he is a journalist and that the activities of WikiLeaks were journalism, rather than espionage as American prosecutors claim.

 

In May, Assange was sentenced for jumping bail in the UK when he fled to London's Ecuadorian embassy, back in June 2012. He is currently serving 22 weeks in HM Prison Belmarsh in Woolwich, southeast London, with a theoretical release date of 2 October, well after the normal legal timescales for extradition hearings would be over.

 

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The AchieVer

Courts to decide Assange fate after UK signs US extradition request: Report

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange will face an extradition hearing on Friday.

 
 

The United Kingdom has agreed to sign an extradition order to send Julian Assange to the United States, bringing the WikiLeaks founder another step closer towards facing court over conspiracy charges for obtaining and publishing secret military and diplomatic documents.

 

British Home Secretary Sajid Javid told the BBC's Today Programme on Thursday that he signed the United States' extradition request, which had been submitted earlier this week. 

 

"I want to see justice done at all times and we've got a legitimate extradition request, so I've signed it, but the final decision is now with the courts," Javid said.

 

Assange will face an extradition hearing on Friday, where the courts could set a timetable for extradition proceedings -- which is when it would be determined whether he is sent to the United States.

 

The WikiLeaks founder was arrested in April at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, where he had lived for almost seven years, shortly after the Ecuadorian government withdrew his asylum. He was then sentenced to 50 weeks in jail in the United Kingdom last month for skipping bail.

 

Later that month, Assange was hit with an 18-count indictment by the US, alleging that he conspired with, and "aided and abetted", Chelsea Manning to remove US classified documents. The indictments also allege that Assange published unredacted names of sources in Iraq and Afghanistan that provided information to the US on WikiLeaks.

 

"These human sources included local Afghans and Iraqis, journalists, religious leaders, human rights advocates, and political dissidents from repressive regimes," a statement from the US Department of Justice (DOJ) said.

 

Sweden has also said it may reopen the rape case against Assange.

 

 

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