Thread by @jamesdoleman

In court now for the Julian #Assange hearing day 2, still awaiting the start of proceedings.

District Judge Vanessa Baraitser enters and proceedings begin.
#Assange

Defence calls it's first witness of the day, Clive Stafford-Smith.
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Stafford-Smith tells the court he is a lawyer, licenced to practice in the US courts and runs an organisation called Reprieve, hence has been involved in legal cases involving rendition and secret detention centres.
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Stafford-Smith testifies that he used information on US drone killings sourced from Wikileaks to take legal action in the courts, which led to them being halted.
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Stafford-Smith says that it would have been far more difficult to get the US Pakistani drone killings stopped without the diplomatic cable evidence revealed by WikiLeaks.
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Stafford-Smith Moves on to what he calls a targeted assassination programme by the US military in Afghanistan and Pakistan, which he says was revealed by Wikileaks.
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Stafford-Smith says that amongst those targetted by this US assassination programme included a US national who worked as a journalist, something he says is "deeply troubling."
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Stafford-Smith is asked about the US detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, he tells the court he has been involved in litigation to ensure everyone there gets a fair trial, he describes the atmosphere at the base as "hostile."
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Stafford-Smith says that the US government itself leaked information containing false allegations against one of his clients who was detained in Guantanamo Bay.
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He says that the wikileaks documents have allowed him to win legal actions to free a number of innocent people from detention in Guantanamo Bay.
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Stafford-Smith "I say more in sorry than in anger, I would never believe my government would do the things it did, torture, rendition..murdering people in Bagram airforce base."
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Stafford-Smith says one document revealed an "enhanced interrogation technique," which included hanging people by their arms while their shoulders slowly dislocated, says it was like The Spanish Inquisition.
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Asked about the role of Wikileaks in revealing the torture, Stafford-Smith says they were very important.
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The lawyer says that he has taken a case to the International Criminal Court over torture which has led to the US taking sanctions against members of that court.
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James Lewis QC for US Government rises to cross-examine Stafford-Smith, he notes that in his witness statement he mentions Wikileaks only on a few occasions.
Says that under the Official Secrets Act in the UK there is no public interest defence,
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Lewis tells the witness that there are no charges against Assange relating to the release of the US government cables he discussed in his evidence, "did the defence mention that to you?" he asks.
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The US government lawyer says that one of the cables Stafford-Smith mentioned was published by both the New York Times and the Washington Post before Wikileaks published them.
Smith says their source was almost certainly Wikileaks
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Lewis, "If Mr Assange is not being prosecuted because of these cables, how is this relevant?"

The prosecution lawyer says the charges against Assange relate to him revealing names of informants in Iraq and Afghanistan which "put people's lives at risk."

Lewis to Stafford-Smith, "you cannot tell this court how this case will be prosecuted, you're making things up."

Stafford-Smith says "I can tell you how American cases are prosecuted."

Lewis, "Are you saying the US attorney General is lying"?

#Assange

"That's what happens in American cases," Stafford-Smith responds."
Assange tries to intervene from the dock, Judge tells him to stop, adjourns for 10 minutes.

Proceedings resume with the judge warning #Assange not to speak again or he may be removed from the court and be tried in his absence.

James Lewis QC suggested to Stafford Smith he had no experience in the classification of National Security documents.
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Stafford-Smith replies "When I first went to see a British Man in Guantanamo he gave me 30 pages on why he was tortured and all of this was classified in the basis that revealing torture was a threat to national security ."
#Assange

Stafford-Smith ends his evidence, the court takes a 5-minute break at the request of the defence.
#Assange