GENOA (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 11th April, 2019) The potential extradition to the United States of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange after his arrest in London can entail grave human rights violations, Micol Savia, the permanent representative of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers (IADL) to the United Nations in Geneva, told Sputnik.
Assange was arrested in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London earlier in the day as Ecuador had withdrawn asylum it had granted to Assange. The UK police confirmed that the arrest had been made "on behalf of the United States authorities." The US Department of Justice said Thursday it was charging Assange with conspiracy related to a 2010 release of stolen documents provided by former US army soldier Chelsea Manning. According to the UK court, the United States has until June 12 to submit all the papers necessary for extradition.
"An eventual extradition of Mr. Assange to the US would expose him to a substantive risk of human rights violations, starting with the right to fair trial and the right to be free from ill-treatment. The likely treatment he would receive can easily be inferred from the trial and detention of Mr. Assange's co-accused, Pfc. Manning, who was subjected to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment and unjustly sentenced to 35 years of imprisonment," Savia said.
The IADL permanent representative stressed that Assange had 'inalienable right to security, and to be free from the risk of persecution, inhumane treatment, and physical harm." Savia added that Ecuador granted Assange asylum "recognizing that he would face well-founded risks if he were extradited to the United States."
"As we know, since 2010 the US has had an active, ongoing secret criminal investigation into Mr Assange and Wikileaks which the Australian government has described as 'unprecedented in size and scale.' In many occasions we urged the US government to lift the secrecy surrounding the criminal investigation of Wikileaks and unseal charges brought against Julian Assange. But this ever happened," the permanent representative said.
The UK court found Assange guilty of breaching bail conditions and kept him in custody. Assange, meanwhile, pleaded not guilty to failure to surrender.
Assange has gained worldwide fame after WikiLeaks released a large number of files, including some on US military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and other sensitive documents.
Since 2012, Assange had been residing in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London to avoid extradition to Sweden, where he faced a probe over allegations of sexual offenses. Assange denied those allegations and called them politically motivated. While the Swedish police dropped the investigation in 2017, Assange was still wary of being extradited to the United States.
