Britain’s political class rightly responded to the mysterious death of Alexei Navalny with an assortment of horror, outrage and indignation. The Kremlin critic’s treatment was an “appalling human rights outrage”, foreign secretary Lord Cameron said. Putin has to be “held to account”, Labour leader Keir Starmer added. So, when Julian Assange arrives at the High Court today for his final hearing, after being held without trial in Belmarsh maximum-security prison for almost five years, will the country’s political elite once again proclaim their commitment to human rights? I suspect not.
If the British state allows Assange to be extradited to the US, it won’t be dealing a potentially deadly blow just to one man, but to democracy itself
FEB 20, 2024
I’ve written for UnHerd about the two-day hearing starting today in which the UK High Court will announce its final decision on Assange’s extradition to the US. If the court rules out a further appeal, Assange could be immediately extradited to the United States, where he will almost certainly be incarcerated for the rest of his life on charges of espionage — most likely in extremely punitive conditions that will push his already critical physical and psychological conditions over the brink. “His life is at risk every single day he stays in prison”, his wife Stella Assange said. “If he’s extradited, he will die”.
The British government’s lack of concern for Assange’s fate is not surprising: they are the ones that put him in prison in the first place, after all. More worrying is the fact that much of the British public also seems relatively unconcerned with the case. This, I suspect, is the result of the relentless smear campaign waged against Assange over the past decade and a half, aimed at destroying his reputation, depriving him of public support and muddying the waters surround his case.
This is why in the article I try to debunk several myths about the Assange case, from the trumped-up rape charges to the depiction of Assange as a fugitive from justice.
Read the article here.
CHATTING CRITICALLY 