(Prensa Latina) Stella Morris, Julian Assange’s partner, on Wednesday urged the US government to drop the charges against the founder of WikiLeaks and end his ‘purgatory’ in a British jail.
The only reason Assange is in Belmarsh Prison is because the United States has not dropped the charges, and the only way to end this purgatory, such endless torture that has been going on for over a decade now, is Washington do so, Morris stated.
Assange’s partner spoke to the press outside the UK High Court of Justice after it became known that the high court in London accepted although in a limited way, the appeal filed by the US prosecution against the British justice system’s refusal to extradite him.
In January, Judge Vanessa Baraitser decided that the Australian journalist could commit suicide if he is sent to the United States, which is interested in trying him for disseminating in WikiLeaks war crimes committed by US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, and secret cables from the State Department.
If Assange is handed over to US justice, he would face 17 charges of espionage and one of conspiracy to commit hacking, carrying a total sentence of 175 years in prison.
Despite rejecting the extradition request in the first instance, the judge determined that the cyber activist must wait in prison for the appeal’s outcome, a process that still has no starting date, and that, according to his lawyer Jennifer Robinson, could take months.
If President Joe Biden’s administration is serious about respecting the rule of law, the First Amendment (of the US Constitution) and global press freedom the only thing he has to do is to close the case, Morris assured.
Assange’s partner also highlighted that the charges against the father of her two children are falling apart after a key prosecution witness recently admitted to lying in exchange for immunity.
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