Strasbourg-Sana
The European Court of Human Rights has called on Britain not to extradite WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to the United States, which wants to try him on spying charges.
In a letter posted on the European Court's website, Commissioner Dunga Mijatovic today called on British Home Secretary Priti Patel not to extradite Assange to the United States, noting that the broader human rights implications of doing so had not been adequately considered in the extradition proceedings.
In particular, Mijatovic highlighted that the US indictment against Assange raised important questions about the protection of those who release classified information in the public interest, including information that reveals human rights abuses.
Mijatovic stressed that allowing Assange to be extradited on this basis would have a chilling effect on media freedom and could ultimately impede the press from fulfilling its mission as an information provider.
She noted that the allegations against Assange and the crimes included in the indictment are worrisome because many of them relate to investigative journalism activities in Europe and abroad and thus allowing Assange to be extradited would have a negative impact on media freedom.
On the 20th of last month, the British judiciary officially authorized the extradition of the founder of WikiLeaks to the United States.
Assange faces 18 charges related to the disclosure by WikiLeaks, which he created, of nearly 500,000 classified files on the wars and crimes committed by the United States in Afghanistan and Iraq.
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