Freedom of expression, freedom of the press and the right of access to information, these days are fighting a decisive battle in which civilized societies largely play the very essence of democracy, that is, the accountability of the rulers before their citizens. I refer to the extradition trial that begins in London against journalist Julian Assange, at the request of the United States of America.
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If the founder of the WikiLeaks news agency were delivered to this country, the transparency of our governments would have been sacrificed to the national security dagger. The world press would be in an alarming situation, being able to be prosecuted by the American justice, without feasible defense, at its own will, provided it considers that a specific publication has affected its powerful institutions. The exercise of executive power would advance along the totalitarian path without a combative press that controls its performance.
Mr. Assange is accused by the US authorities of committing 18 crimes, 17 of which are registered under the Espionage Act of 1917, an anachronistic norm for pursuing spies in the framework of the First World War; and one related to the alleged help to the military man Chelsea Manning to handle the computers from where, they say, the information came out. The penalty request is nothing less than 175 years in prison, which de facto implies a life sentence, in almost absolute isolation conditions, by application of the so-called "Special Administrative Measures" (SAMS). His crime consists of the publication of the war diaries of Iraq and Afghanistan in 2010, the cables of the State Department and the Guantanamo archives on those imprisoned there. Publications that evidenced the commission of war crimes, systematic torture and other international crimes.
WikiLeaks is a news agency that created a firewall system in the IPs to ensure that any whistleblower in the world could send information about the commission of crimes to the platform, guaranteeing the anonymity of the source. Paradoxically, the European directive on warnings against corruption goes in that direction.
The news agency has published relevant data, such as the dumping of toxic waste in Ivory Coast by the multinational Trafigura, the instruction manuals of the Guantanamo military base, evidence of corruption and extrajudicial executions in Kenya or the censorship of the Internet in China , among others. WikiLeaks has therefore been awarded multiple international awards.
His crime is to bring to light some publications that evidenced the commission of war crimes, systematic torture and international crimes
The United States never forgave WikiLeaks to submit its foreign policy to the scrutiny of world public opinion. He never agreed to evidence the commission of international crimes by his Army. Nor did he forgive who, according to the justice of that country, would have been the source of WikiLeaks, Chelsea Manning who is currently in prison again for refusing to testify against Assange.
The Calvary of Assange since the publication of the diaries of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan has dyes of torture, as confirmed by the UN Rapporteur against Torture, Nils Melzer. In 2012 he had to take refuge in the tiny Embassy of Ecuador in London to avoid a delivery to Sweden, where guarantees of non-re-extradition to the United States were denied, for a chaotic sense without cause that never made charges and that closed three times without evidence . For almost seven years Julian Assange lived without access to sunlight or fresh air, with an indescribable physical and psychological condition. Currently, already arrested after economic pressure from the United States to the current Government of Ecuador, its situation is unsustainable. He is in a maximum security prison, known as the "British Guantanamo", with limited access to lawyers and in a situation of practical isolation.
The extradition that begins on February 24 and that will culminate on June 5 must end with the denial of the delivery of the journalist. The dangerous precedent that could be assumed has been warned by almost all the international organizations of the world.
British justice must deny this extradition and put an end to political persecution. Julian Assange, as a journalist, is protected by the First Amendment of the United States Constitution, which includes the right to freedom of the press and the publication of truthful information obtained from anonymous sources. Also for the disproportion involved in the application of the Espionage Law and a penalty of 175 years in jail against a practicing journalist. Without forgetting very serious facts such as that the Spanish National Court is investigating the Spanish security company that provided services at the embassy, for an abusive and totalitarian scheme of alleged espionage against Assange and his lawyers in favor of US intelligence services.
All evidence of an absolute lack of guarantees of the journalist before the American jurisdiction.
Baltasar Garzón is the coordinating lawyer for the international defense of Julian Assange.
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