Julian Assange loses right to appeal extradition to the USA

[thewayne]

From the Cnet article: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange's attempt to appeal extradition was denied by the UK's Supreme Court on Monday. Assange was initially granted the right to petition the court in late January.

The UK's highest court denied Assange's bid because "the application does not raise an arguable point of law," according to a statement released by the court."

He still has one shot left, which I doubt will work. Again, from the article, quoting Reuters: "Interior Minister Priti Patel must now ratify the extradition decision, which Assange can then challenge via judicial review, according to Reuters."

I am not a fan of Assange, I think he's a bomb-throwing anarchist who delights in watching things burn. Or once did, his attitude may have adjusted a bit as things are looking much more grim for him. But I just have to say WTF to this. He is not an American citizen. He was not in America when he received this information, he was not in America when he published it. This just strikes me as our government continuing to flail about saying "Our feelings are hurt because he showed that we did some really ugly stuff! WHAAAAAA!!!!"

If he did this while on American territory, fine. Charge him. If he were an American citizen doing this on a foreign territory - and he set foot on American territory and were arrested, fine. You have a legal basis for the charge. Otherwise, the basis for charging him seems flimsier than tissue paper. In a rain storm.

https://www.cnet.com/news/politics/wikileaks-founder-julian-assange-denied-permission-to-appeal-extradition/

Comments

[captainsblog]

I'm sure this will make Glenn Greenwald very sad, once he sees the news after getting his head off of Putin's faloombwehbweh.

[dewline]

The people seeking to ship him off don't believe they have to care about this.

That's a separate issue from what I think of him as a person.

[thewayne]

That does seem to be the case.

[mtbc]

Priti Patel won't be any help, no idea about the judicial review but I bet it succeeds only on very limited bases. Yeah, I am no fan at all of the US' extraterritorial reaching, not that the EU's always any better in that regard.

[thewayne]

No, Priti is pretty much Voldemort in female skin.  She'll happily rubberstamp it.  And I don't think the review of it will help.  I don't see how it can be legal, clearly there are aspects that I don't know..

[armiphlage]

Extraterritorial reaching? Well, at least you can't say they are inconsistent. It's only a slight stretch from the US's total and unconditional support of the International Criminal Court's jurisdiction over far more severe offenses.

Oh wait ...

[thewayne]

Total support except when it comes to Americans. That's one problem with Ukraine's complaining about the use of cluster munitions.  Three countries who are not signatory to the treaty banning them are Russia, USA, and Ukraine.

[armiphlage]

Oooooh.

[thewayne]

Yeah.  Rings a little hollow to complain about someone using a munition against you when you yourself haven't signed the treaty trying to ban it.

[rain_gryphon]

He committed espionage against the United States. His nationality doesn't matter, nor does it matter where he happened to be standing when he did the deed.

[dewline]

Such is the logic of the US Espionage Act. Which also - still! - does not admit to anything resembling a true "public interest" defence against charges filed under said Act.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Espionage_Act_of_1917

[disneydream06]

Dude just needs to go away.
I agree with you, I think he likes to watch things burn. :o
Hugs, Jon

[acelightning73]

I'd like to have a link to that article, so I can share it with someone who is following the case. Thanks.

[thewayne]

Right there at the bottom of the page. :-)

[acelightning73]

I had just gotten home from a doctor's appointment when i read it. (I'm pretty sure I told you about the person I know who had run-ins with Assange.)

[thewayne]

You did.  I have no sympathy or interest in the guy, but I don't like what our gov't is doing.

[silveradept]

That is a fairly standard aspect of the US government, regrettably. They request quite a bit of people to be extradited to them for reasons that are often quite tenuous about how they pertain to the government. (And, given how much the UK wants to be pretty close to the US, I fully expect Assange to be extradited.)