1/ Final long thread for this week. Many people believe the attempt to extradite #Assange to be morally repugnant & based upon legally dubious arguments. Less well understood are the details of the “enabling act” that facilitated it & reduced all of our rights. #FreeAssange 
2/ The offending legislation is the 2003 Extradition Act. This was designed to pave the way for new extradition treaties, including, most controversially, the “unequal” extradition treaty with the United States: dumptheguardian.com/politics/2006/….
3/ Somewhat ironically, although it was much criticised at the time, the 2006 Extradition Treaty, under which Assange is being threatened with extradition but the “enabling act” of 2003.
4/ As human rights activist Craig Murray has eloquently explained, the 2003 Act is being used to undermine the protections concerning extradition for political offenses contained within the 2006 Treaty by the Prosecution against Assange: craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2020/…
5/ They are able to do this because, while it removes the requirement that the United States and others provide prima facie evidence to support extradition requests, does not explicitly prohibit extradition for political offenses.
6/ But the Act does make clear that extradition shouldn't take place if it would lead to unfair treatment on grounds of an individual's political views.
7/ Is this why the prosecution has been at pains to argue, somewhat implausibly given revelations about the alleged plot to kidnap him, that Assange will not suffer Guantanamo conditions in a supermax prison due to the nature of the allegations he faces? rt.com/op-ed/538822-a….
8/ This legislation, as well as the 2006 Immigration Asylum and Citizenship Act, justified in part by the rhetoric surrounding the war on terror, highlights the pernicious implications of British foreign policy adventurism abroad on human rights at home. #FreeAssange
9/ We can all be threatened with extradition if the US Government chooses to make unevidenced allegations against us. Cross-party complicity in the legislative process has not only failed to protect our rights; it has facilitated their erosion. We need a proper constitution.
10/10 Finally, voting the Tories out may not not stop the threats to our freedoms; when the Swedish legal team hesitated over keeping Assange’s case open, while #Starmer was still DPP, his office allegedly replied: ‘Don’t you dare get cold feet’: labourheartlands.com/exclusive-ken-…. Chilling
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