{"id":62928,"date":"2024-02-22T00:01:04","date_gmt":"2024-02-22T00:01:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/assange-too-ill-to-attend-key-hearing-against-extradition\/"},"modified":"2024-02-22T00:01:04","modified_gmt":"2024-02-22T00:01:04","slug":"assange-too-ill-to-attend-key-hearing-against-extradition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/assange-too-ill-to-attend-key-hearing-against-extradition\/","title":{"rendered":"Assange too ill to attend key hearing against extradition"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div dir=\"auto\">\n<p>\u2022 Lawyer says he was targeted over WikiLeaks\u2019 exposures<br \/>\u2022 Crowd chants \u2018Free Julian Assange\u2019 outside court<\/p>\n<p>LONDON: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was absent from a London court due to illness Tuesday as his lawyer made a final appeal against extradition to the United States to face trial for publishing secret military and diplomatic files.<\/p>\n<p>Washington wants the Australian extradited after he was charged in the United States multiple times between 2018 and 2020 over WikiLeaks\u2019 2010 publication of files on the US-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"media  w-full  w-full  media--stretch  media--embed  media--uneven\">\n<p>    <iframe class=\"nk-iframe\" onload=\"setInterval(()=&gt;{try{this.style.height=this.contentWindow.document.body.scrollHeight+'px';}catch{}}, 100)\" width=\"100%\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" style=\"height:400px;position:relative\" src=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/card\/1475429\" sandbox=\"allow-same-origin allow-scripts allow-popups allow-modals allow-forms\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Attending the two-day hearing in Assange\u2019s absence, his lawyer Edward Fitzgerald said the prosecution could not be justified. \u201cHe is being prosecuted for engaging in ordinary journalistic practice of obtaining and publishing classified information, information that is both true and of obvious and important public interest,\u201d Fitzgerald said.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier, he told judge Victoria Sharp that his client, 52, was \u201cnot well today\u201d and would not att\u00adend London\u2019s High Court in person or via video link.<\/p>\n<p>Before the hearing, Assange\u2019s wife Stella thanked a crowd of protesters, saying: \u201cPlease keep on showing up, be there for Julian and for us, until Julian is free.\u201d The crowd outside court chanted \u201cFree Julian Assange\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have two big days ahead. We don\u2019t know what to expect, but you\u2019re here because the world is watching,\u201d Stella Assange added.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey just cannot get away with this. Julian needs his freedom and we all need the truth.\u201d The long-running legal saga in Britain\u2019s courts is nearly concluded, after Assange lost successive rulings in recent years.<\/p>\n<p>If this week\u2019s bid to appeal is successful, he will have another chance to argue his case in a London court, with a date set for a full hearing. If he loses, Assange will have exhausted all UK appeals and the extradition process will begin.<\/p>\n<p>Stella Assange, however, said her husband will ask the European Court of Human Rights to temporarily halt the extradition if needed, warning he would die if sent to the United States.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTomorrow and the day after will determine whether he lives or dies essentially, and he\u2019s physically and mentally obviously in a very difficult place,\u201d she told BBC radio on Monday.<\/p>\n<p>Kristinn Hrafnsson, Wik\u00adi\u00adLeaks\u2019 editor-in-chief, told reporters last week that caveats included within the US promises meant they were \u201cnot worth the paper they are written on\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>On the same day, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese denounced the years-long legal pursuit of Assange, saying \u201cenough is enough\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>It came after Australia\u2019s parliament passed a motion to end to his prosecution.<\/p>\n<p>Assange and his wife, a lawyer who he met when she worked on his case, have two children together.<\/p>\n<p>After the end of the morning\u2019s court proceedings, Hrafnsson told Assange\u2019s supporters there would be a protest march down to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak\u2019s Downing Street office later Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p><em>Published in Dawn, February 21st, 2024<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u2022 Lawyer says he was targeted over WikiLeaks\u2019 exposures\u2022 Crowd chants \u2018Free Julian Assange\u2019 outside court LONDON: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was absent from a London court due to illness Tuesday as his lawyer made a final appeal against extradition to the United States to face trial for publishing secret military and diplomatic files. Washington [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":62929,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.dawn.com\/large\/2024\/02\/21090517209b2cf.jpg?r=090522","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[192],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-62928","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-islamabad-news"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62928","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62928"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62928\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}