Consortium News Profile picture
Feb 21 28 tweets 6 min read Read on X
Our live updates from the #Assange courtroom at the Royal Courts of Justice, Day 2 afternoon session, will be on this thread. Image
Court in session. Now we can hear the prosecution but not the judges.
Prosecution is refuting Ground 4 and Ground 6 of the defence's appeal. Focusing on the Fair Trial issue.

There is an argument of Speciality or nothing. The claim is the applicant is at risk of being punished for conduct he has not been charged with. That is Specialty and it is being forced into Art. 6
Pros. Specialty was fairly argued in the extradition Hearing & it is doomed by the case of Welsh(?).

The UK does not accept the American view. we must assume Specialty is not breach in the appellant's case, and that he would therefore have a fair trial.
Pros. The law states that everyone is entitled to a fair trial and this incudes the applicant. We get nowhere the flagrancy threshold with this complaint about the risk of sentencing enhancement.
Pros. The court should ignore the Specialty issue. No risk that Assange could incur, as defence suggested, additional charges (such as "aiding and abetting treason").
Pros: Disproportionate sentencing (175 years) It is not up to the UK to impose UK sentencing polity on a foreign state. Mr [Thomas] Durkin estimated that a team of 30-40 years was more likely. Kromberg said it could be be up to 63 months, but since what #Assange had done was extremely serious it could be more.
Pros. Looked at through a US and UK lens, #Assange's offence is grave & unprecedented. It was a sweep of offending that this country has ever had to grapple with. It would attract significant sentencing in both jurisdictions and has nothing to do with journalism.
Pros. It is not surprising that #Assange's offending would attract a significant amount of sentencing.

Judges ask for Manning's sentencing remarks.
Pros. Regarding the Home Secretary's role, there is no arguable point of law. Her role is certification and decision on the basis of S.93-102.

The SoS must perform her duties without question, unless there are prohibitive conditions.
Pros. The date of the extradition treaty (2007) is irrelevant. Conditions were signed in 2003 & by the time it was ratified it was clear how UK domestic law would interact with it. There is no jus cogens point to be made about the political exception provision.
Pros. It was other legislation that prevented the extradition of Gary McKinnon. There is no free-ranging discretion of a Home Secretary on which to refuse an extradition.
Pros. There was no question that parliament didn't know what it was doing when it with drew the political exception provision from the 2003 Act.

Judge So you mean the treaty states that if the US requests extradition from the US political exception can be applied, but not in the other direction

Pros. Yes
Pros. Chelsea Manning was charged with aiding the enemy. #Assange has not. Her sentence was commuted. There is no reason to think that Assange would be subjected to the death penalty, such as to engage Art. 3.
Pros. One assurance is that #Assange can be sent to Australia to serve his sentence. That would be incompatible with a death sentence.

Judge: Is it possible nevertheless that a charge of "aiding and abetting treason" could be laid?

Pros. I can't see that happening
Edward Fitzgerald from the defence interjects on the subject of arbitrariness:

"We rely [they say] on the treaty to lock this person up but we're going to ignore the most basic protections of the treaty."

The prosecution assumes the political offence removal was from the act deliberate. This can't be assumed.

We submit that the Act is simply silent, and it is extraordinary assumption to say everything that was in the act before is purposefully dis-applied.

The basis on which the US has made a request is the extradition treaty. The treaty is inescapable, as Art. 5 which is incorporated into the Act.

The prosecution asserts that political exception is out of date, but it is being incorporated to this very day into this country's treaties with other state.
EF: Article 31 of the treaty said it was an abuse to not give effect to a protection in an incorporated treaty that was not mentioned in the act.
EF: UK has certainly decided to abide by the extradition treaty so we can ignore its protections under At, 5 and must prevent an abuse of process. Conduct that is a product of a political opinion is protected under 81A of our act.
EF: Mr Pompeo certainly said Mr #Assange would not be protected by the First Amendment because he was was foreign.

As for Specialty, it is an age-old concept. Fair trial is a modern concept. There is a specific risk in #Assange case [Vault 7] why he could be punished for acts he was not charged or convicted of. Expert witness Thomas Durkin identified this risk in the light of evidence submitted by [anonymous] Witness 2 regarding extra-judicial activity by CIA in relation to Assange. When it comes to a question of right to life the court must exercise caution.
MS for the defence.

May I go back to the assertion by the defence that the subject of @WikiLeaks revelations is exposure of state crimes? All refugee law examines nexus between such acts and prosecution. Such acts are protected un S81. We heard no response from the prosecution on that core issue. What happened here was retaliation from the very top level - after the ICC took interest. They assert Mr Trump praised Mr Assange - while were ignorant at the time that he was plotting to kill him.
MS: The prosecution asserts that due process has been followed - it doesn't't seem like it to us. There was a plan to rendition which due to its illegality (he had not been charged with anything) which was replaced with a legal process.

Article 7: there was no suggestion in 2010 that Mr Assange would be liable. There was no suggestion, even if some illegal activity was engaged in, that resulting journalism would be illegal.

DJ didn't consider any of this. She decided to let the 5th Amendment resolve the problem of un-foreseeability.
MS: We are only look in at the manning allegations because only the hacking allegation should involve a sentence, not the journalism. But if convicted, we would immediate raise Article 8 in relation to time served.

It is not right to of the US to add other allegations to prop up those charges.
MS: And it is not right to suggest, as the prosecution does, that there is not a public interest balance to perform with a disclosure, and one must not incriminate the press because a source acted illegally.
MS: The prosecution ignores the fact that names were revealed because a @Wikileaks media partner published a key to the un-redacted material, and despite Mr #Assange's efforts in contacting the State Department to seek their help in preventing this - and that he was ignored.
MS There is no absolute law that classified material should not be published and that the act must be published.

The Strasbourg court in its balancing act would at most acknowledge a risk for people engaging in the reported crimes, or possibly uninvolved civilians - but the facts of the US's investigation [supervised by General Robert Carr] that no one was harmed. There is no doubt however that unimaginable crime was revealed.
MS. Regarding death penalty, my learned colleague has acknowledged that it could be engaged with a new charge [such as aiding and abetting treason]. An assurance in the last appeal, prosecution asserts, precludes the death penalty. That is not the case. There is no such assurance against the death penalty.

We have submitted that the wording of assurances must be considered carefully. One can't be transferred alive [to Australia] if one is dead.
Appeal ends
@threadreaderapp unroll

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with Consortium News

Consortium News Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @Consortiumnews

May 20
We'll be live on this thread at 10.30am BST from the #Assange courtroom in London, where judges will announce whether he may appeal on any or all of 3 grounds:

- risk of death penalty
- prejudice by way of his nationality
- risk of no First Amendment protection

Or, extradition! Image
We are now connected to the Royal Courts of Justice. The courtroom is filling up. Journalists were instructed to sign in 30 minutes before proceedings began. The #Assange Hearing starts in 24 minutes.
We await the arrival of Dame Victoria Sharp and Justice Jeremy Johnson, the two judges who heard #Assange's Renewal Appeal. Their decision was deferred, because they offered the U.S. a chance to offer assurances on 3 points that could block extradition. The US responded.
Read 25 tweets
May 13
We're heading off to the Supreme Court in Canberra for the sentencing decision on military whistleblower David McBride @MurdochCadell. Updates will be on this thread. Image
We're inside the courtroom, awaiting Judge Mossop. David McBride @MurdochCadell is close by with his dog Jake. David's eyes are closed, as they were last week.
Judge enters. Someone cries out "Shame on the court!". The judge tells her to please sit down & be quiet,

Begins reading a statement of facts, beginning with McBride's guilty plea.
- Stealing documents which carries a max penalty of 10 years
- Communicating information to Chris Master & Dan Oakes. Max penalty - fine or prison for "any amount or time" - but could be 6 months prison
- Publishing documents on 'The Ops Room'. Fine or prison for any term, as originally specified in the Defence Act - gives history of the Act
Read 29 tweets
May 5
We are standing outside courtroom 7 of the Canberra Supreme Court with @MurdochCadell & his defence. Another case is still being
Heard
Before the sentencing of David McBride we will hear submissions from the prosecution first, led by Trish McDonald, and then from the defence, led by Mark Odgers. The courtroom door has not yet opened.
We are now in the courtroom for the sentencing of David McBride @MurdochCadell, and currently awaiting the arrival of Judge David Mossop. David is accompanied by his dog Jake.
Read 63 tweets
Feb 21
Our live updates from the #Assange courtroom on Day 2, morning session, will be on this thread. Image
@unjoe @CathyVoganSPK We are connected to the #Assange courtroom for Day 2 of his Renewal Appeal. Today we will hear from the prosecution and we have view on Clare Dobbin KC preparing her papers. No sound from the courtroom as yet
@unjoe @CathyVoganSPK Court in session. No sign of #Assange.
Read 47 tweets
Feb 20
Our live updates from the #Assange Renewal Appeal courtroom - Day 1 afternoon session - will be on this thread. Image
@unjoe @CathyVoganSPK Court in session again.
@unjoe @CathyVoganSPK Mark Summers speaking again for the defense.
Continuing with prior cases in the US relating to this case. Prior publishers of many source names only had passport confiscated. Daniel Ellsberg, a state employee, was not prosecuted.
Read 38 tweets
Feb 20
Consortium News hopes to be live tweeting from the #Assange court room on this thread, but we have NOT received our video links as yet - neither @unjoe nor @CathyVoganSPK (who had intended to connect via remote access).

If the links do not arrive they will both be in the court room and will endeavour to report from there.Image
@unjoe @CathyVoganSPK Still no remote access links for @Consortiumnews but the court has said they will try to get ours to us ASAP. #Assange Hearing begins in 20 minutes.
@unjoe @CathyVoganSPK We have received the remote access link and are now connected to the #Assange courtroom.
Read 50 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us!

:(