Julian Assange's Long Road to Extradition

John Pilger: Extradition Process a ‘Very Long Uphill Road’ for Assange

by TRNN

June 17, 2019

Last week, United Kingdom Home Secretary Sajid Javid signed the extradition request from the United States to hand over WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who is charged with 18 counts of violating the Espionage Act of 1917. The final decision on the extradition request now rests with British courts.

“This case is an outrageous affront to journalistic protections,” Assange's lawyer Jennifer Robinson said after the court decision.

“This indictment will place a chilling impact and will affect journalists and publishers everywhere all over the world by the U.S. seeking to extradite and prosecute a publisher outside of the U.S. who is not a U.S. citizen for having published truthful information about the United States: evidence of war crimes, human rights abuse, and corruption the world over.”

Journalist and documentary filmmaker John Pilger described Assange's extradition hearing last week to The Real News Network’s Greg Wilpert: “[Assange] didn't have an opportunity to defend himself. And that's the first major issue here. He doesn't even have a computer. He doesn't have access to documents. He's kept, a lot of the time, isolated, although he's in a hospital ward.”