By Dave Putson
It now appears that a plea bargain deal has been struck between Julian Assange’s legal team and the US Justice department. It is being reported that Assange was “released” from HMP Belmarsh on yesterday, June 24.
In my opinion, ‘release’ is still too strong a word, given that the deal appears to be that Assange accepts one charge under the USA Espionage Act, and then, due to “time served” by his incarceration in the UK, he would then be allowed to return to his home in Australia.
He was apparently taken from Belmarsh to Stansted airport, where he was “released”. from UK custody at 5pm. This is after almost two thousand days of imprisonment in a small cell in Belmarsh Prison. There is a video clip of Julian Assange walking onto the tarmac and then up the steps onto a plane, hopefully, headed for the island of Saipan in the Northern Marianas islands.
Sadly this is a little too close to Guam, a USA territory. It is not clear who his representative will be in the USA court on Saipan, nor who is travelling with him to ensure his ongoing safety. It ought to be someone of significant diplomatic stature, like an Australian Government representative, but I have seen no reporting of such support.
This is a huge story not being “headlined” on news outlets, but at least reported by the BBC. I am personally cynical enough to think that that USA could strike, what appears to be a deal, and then renege on it when they have their hands on Assange. The Biden administration has been prepared to take a severe “reputational hit“ for its deeply, cynical conduct over Gaza, making weasily criticisms of Israel, while arming it to the hilt, and I can see no change in their attitude here.
Wikileaks exposed war crimes by the US military
The US authorities have suffered embarrassment ever since their military were exposed by Wikileaks for perpetrating serious war crimes in Iraq, including the strafing (and filming) of innocent civilians in a street, crimes for which there have been no charges, hearings or punishments. Not only were these crimes catalogued by Wikileaks, but they were dumped and made available to news outlets around the world.
It has always been their aim to hit back and make Assange pay for exposing their duplicitous, scheming, war-mongering conduct world wide. Al Capone was a notorious criminal, but his patch was a square mile of Chicago; the USA military’s patch is global, larger than the former British Empire, but equally as dangerous to working people.
The cynicism of the USA in wishing to extradite Assange was ably and duplicitously supported by “obtaining” an Icelandic witness, later proved to have lied under oath. And yet they persisted, ably assisted by a UK judicial system that until very late, argued that there was a case to take forward, until the very last hearing, when two judges finally determined that the US had failed to provide the necessary assurances about Assange’s safety.
After than, he was granted leave to further appeal, much to his and his team’s surprise. It was this that set the groundwork for the diplomatic solution that appears to have now been reached. I simply hope at this stage that this is not another US ruse to get Assange beyond anyone else’s jurisdiction, so that they can renege on the agreement and remove him to a USA prison.
There has been a hardcore of Assange activists who have fought for truth, justice and Assange ’s freedom for years. They may well be justified if they are elated today, and like them, I am at least half-pleased that Assange has at least seen some sky today and for the duration of his journey, for the first time in a very very long and unjustified incarceration.
I hope Julian Assange gets to his hearing, and that the USA sticks to the agreement, and that Julian gets to spend the much missed quality time with his family, to enjoy freedoms he fought for – for all of us – over an extended period. Seeing, though, will be believing.
