Defense against GB extradition to the US, would be sentenced to death
(ANSA) – LONDON, OCTOBER 28 – The appeal process is closed, it is time to wait for the second degree verdict of the British justice on the highly contested request for extradition to the USA of Julian Assange: the 50-year-old Australian founder of WikiLeaks that Washington is pursuing relentlessly since over 10 years, after being embarrassed by the release of a mountain of secret documents, including Pentagon files on war crimes committed in Afghanistan and Iraq.
The judicial tug-of-war has today exhausted a new crucial phase, with the second and final hearing of the proceeding, triggered by the appeal of the legal team representing the American government against the no to extradition opposed last January by a London judge of first instance to the delivery of the former Russian primrose to the USA, on the basis of an alleged danger of suicide linked – according to an expert report – to the foreseeable judicial and prison treatment. Overseas, the wanted man, accused of computer piracy and even espionage, faces a monstrous sentence of 175 years in prison.
Now all that remains is to wait for the new sentence, expected in approximately 6-8 weeks: the two appellate judges – lord Ian Burnett and lord Timothy Holroyde – have also reserved a deadline, underlining at the end of the hearings that they have collected the two parties “many elements to reflect on” and suggesting that they want to take the necessary time.
(ANSA).