The United States Government’s assurance that Julian Assange would have all the protections of a US citizen in a US court is obviously a fantasy.
That Mr Assange will have the ‘ability to raise and seek to rely upon at trial the rights and protections given under the First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States’, but its applicability ‘is exclusively within the purview of the U.S. Courts’ is no assurance at all. Either he does or he doesn’t, it’s as simple as that. Indeed these assurances are basically political promises and there is no way of enforcing them in a court of law.
“If the US can’t guarantee that Mr Assange will unequivocally be able to rely on free speech under the First Amendment, then the United Kingdom High Court of Justice must allow Mr Assange to appeal his extradition. Even better, the US can come to a diplomatic solution and drop the prosecution of Mr Assange to allow him to return to Australia
Authorised by Andrew Wilkie MP 188 Collins St Hobart, April 17, 2024
Andrew Wilkie MP
My concern with governance has its origins in my decision to resign from the Office of National Assessments (ONA) on 11 March 2003 in protest over the Iraq war. I was the only serving intelligence official in Australia, the UK and US to resign publicly before the invasion. I subsequently ran against Prime Minister John Howard at the 2004 federal election and wrote an account of my experience, Axis of Deceit.
I am active across a range of issues including health, housing, climate change and jobs, as well as the issues that the major parties ignore including animal welfare, gambling reform, asylum seekers, protections for whistleblowers and foreign and security policy. I have served on the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security and was Chairperson of the Parliamentary Joint Select Committee on Gambling Reform. My qualifications include a Bachelor of Arts, Graduate Diploma of Management and Graduate Diploma of Defence Studies.