Assange Risks Facing Human Rights Violations In US, Must Not Be Extradited - Rights Group

Assange Risks Facing Human Rights Violations in US, Must Not Be Extradited - Rights Group

The United States must drop all charges against Julian Assange and rule out his extradition from the United Kingdom, as he is likely to be subjected to human rights violations and an unfair trial, a prominent rights group said on Friday

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 21st February, 2020) The United States must drop all charges against Julian Assange and rule out his extradition from the United Kingdom, as he is likely to be subjected to human rights violations and an unfair trial, a prominent rights group said on Friday.

Ahead of an extradition hearing scheduled for February 24, Amnesty International called on the UK to avoid handing Assange over to the US and called his pursuit "nothing short of a full-scale assault on the right to freedom of expression."

"Amnesty International strongly opposes any possibility of Julian Assange being extradited or sent in any other manner to the USA. There, he faces the real risk of serious human rights violations, including possible detention conditions that would amount to torture and other ill-treatment (such as prolonged solitary confinement)," the group wrote in a statement.

Amnesty added that prolonged negative public campaigns against Assange undermined his right to be presumed innocent and put him at risk of an unfair trial.

The group argues that prosecuting Assange may have a chilling effect on the right of freedom of expression, leading journalists to self-censor for fear of prosecution.

Assange spent seven years in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London after skipping bail and asking for political asylum in 2012 to evade possible extradition to the United States and political persecution over a major leak of classified communications that exposed US transgressions during the Iraq and Afghan wars. The whistleblower was forced out of the embassy last year and is being held at a high-security prison in London pending an extradition trial, which is scheduled to begin on Monday.

The WikiLeaks founder has been indicted by a US court on 18 felony charges, mostly regarding the violations of the Espionage Act. Each count carries a possible prison sentence between five and 10 years if he is convicted.