by Craig Murray at Consortium News
The United States has now, on the face of it, produced the Diplomatic Note giving the two assurances required by the High Court to allow the extradition of Julian Assange to proceed.
The assurance that Julian Assange will be allowed to rely on the First Amendment in his defence is a blatantly weak piece of sophistry.
You can read my analysis on the High Court judgment of Assange’s right to an appeal here.
Let me dispense with the assurance against the death penalty. I am sure it will be accepted by the court. The USA does not need to execute Julian, it can incarcerate him in a tiny concrete tomb for life, under extreme sensory deprivation, as a terrible half living warning to any journalist who might reveal their crimes.
Remember this is a government that plotted to kidnap and/or assassinate him, as pled and not denied in court.
The assurance required on First Amendment protection is being misunderstood by almost everybody reporting it, and the U.S. Diplomatic Note seeks to take advantage of the confusion.
The High Court took the view that the First Amendment provides the same protections as Article X of the European Convention on Human Rights, and therefore Assange’s Convention rights will be protected if he is allowed to plead the First Amendment as a defence before a U.S. court. The court did not ask for an assurance that such a plea would succeed. Article X of the ECHR is itself absolutely shot through with authoritarian national security and other exceptions…
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