Amnesty International Statement
Responding to the news that the UK Home Secretary Priti Patel has certified Julian Assange’s extradition to the United States to face charges under the Espionage Act, Agnes Callamard, Amnesty International Secretary General said: “Allowing Julian Assange to be extradited to the US would put him at great risk and sends a chilling message to journalists the world over.”
“If the extradition proceeds, Amnesty International is extremely concerned that Assange faces a high risk of prolonged solitary confinement, which would violate the prohibition on torture or other ill treatment. Diplomatic assurances provided by the US that Assange will not be kept in solitary confinement cannot be taken on face value given previous history.”
“We call on the UK to refrain from extraditing Julian Assange, for the US to drop the charges, and for Assange to be freed.”
Julian Assange is likely to further appeal the extradition on separate grounds that it violates his right to freedom of expression.
The Libertarian Party condemns without reservation the cowardly approval by the Home Secretary Priti ‘PR’ Patel.
She is another face of this venal self serving government that is in thrall to the ‘security services’ of the United States. Assange exposed the amongst others the war crimes of a US helicopter gunship that opened fire on a civilians and press while trying to load wounded into a vehicle. That Biden is now levelling the same accusations of war crimes in the Ukraine.
As we have no Constitution, one of just five countries in the world that includes Saudi Arabia, not one of us has any protection, as citizens, from the long reach of United States that President Eisenhower warned us about.
‘In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.’ January 17th 1961
The Administration of Boris Johnson had alleged Libertarian Principles. From Sunak’s disastrous big State high tax policies to Patel’s authoritarian instincts, this Government has not a Libertarian bone in its collective body.
Andrew Withers FRSA
