COURAGE EDITION To Chelsea Week l y Leaks Monday 21st September 2020 FREE Follow Assange’s extradition WikiLeaks pioneered secure submission hearing coverage live at systems for journalism Page 4 defend.WikiLeaks.org Tortured for revealing Assange could die in war crimes Supermax prison in the when and in the interest of whom? Old Bailey on September 7th, and is U.S. for journalism Editorial When the laws of exception are the expected to last until October 2nd. rule, does justice become an excep- Expert witnesses have given elements What is journalism? What is jour- tion? What happens when crucial of answers to these questions through Assange’s extradition nalism’s duty and to whom? Who information returns to the public thoroughly researched, engaging is and isn’t a journalist, and who domain, thanks to the dedication of testimonies — some of which can be decides that? What is a political opin- journalists, whistleblowers and indi- found in this issue of WeeklyLeaks. will create a precedent ion and who is allowed to have one? viduals? And what if we end up living Hanging in the courtroom, with What protects the right to inform, be in a world where there are no such the fate of the WikiLeaks founder, is affecting all journalists in informed and express one’s opinion? people left, to speak truth to power? the fate of us all. Who decides what state and corpo- Those are some key questions So stay informed and join the the U.K. and worldwide rate secrets should be revealed to at the heart of Julian Assange’s extra- fight against the extradition and per- the public or remain classified? Why, dition hearing, which resumed at the secution of Julian Assange.■ Magistrate brings another pre-written judgement to Assange’s hearing Craig Murray Historian and human rights activist, I went to former British Ambassador the Old Bailey 7 SEPTEMBER 2020 expecting to Our Man in the Public Gallery at the Assange extradition hearing be awed by the majesty of I went to the Old Bailey today expect- ing to be awed by the majesty of the the law, and law, and left revolted by the sordid administration of injustice. left revolted There is a romance which by the sordid attaches to the Old Bailey. The name of course means fortified enclosure administration and it occupies a millennia old foot- of injustice. print on the edge of London’s ancient city wall. It is the site of the medie- val Newgate Prison, and formal trials have taken place at the Old Bailey and friends, made our nervous way space and was obviously damp, Rather to our surprise, nobody access to the inadequate video fol- for at least 500 years, numbering this morning. We were shown to sheets of delaminating white paint else was allowed into the public gal- lowing strong representations from in the hundreds of thousands. For Court 10 up many stairs that seemed drooping down from it like flags lery of Court 10 but us five. Others like the German Embassy). the majority of that time, those con- like the back entrance to a particu- of forlorn surrender. The dock in John Pilger and Kristin Hrafnsson, The reason given that only five victed even of minor offences of theft larly unloved works canteen. Tiles which Julian would be held still had editor in chief of WikiLeaks, were of us were allowed in the public gal- were taken out and executed in the were chipped, walls were filthy and a bulletproof glass screen in front, shunted into the adjacent court 9 lery of some 40 seats was distanc- alleyway outside. It is believed that flakes of paint hung down from like Belmarsh, but it was not boxed where a very small number were ing; except we were allowed to all sit hundreds, perhaps thousands, lie crumbling ceilings. Only the security in. There was no top to the screen, permitted to squint at a tiny screen, together in consecutive seats in the buried under the pavements. cameras watching us were new – so no low ceiling, so sound could flow on which the sound was so inau- front row. The two rows behind us The hefty Gothic architecture new, in fact, that little piles of plaster freely over and Julian seemed much dible John Pilger simply left. Many remained completely empty. of the current grand building dates and brick dust lay under each. more in the court. It also had many others who had expected to attend, To finish scene setting, Julian back no further than 1905, and round Court 10 appeared to be a fairly more and wider slits than the noto- such as Amnesty International and himself looked tidy and well groomed the back and sides of that is wrapped bright and open modern box, with rious Belmarsh Box, and Julian was Reporters Without Borders, were and dressed, and appeared to have some horrible cheap utility building pleasant light woodwork, jammed able to communicate quite readily simply excluded, as were MPs from regained a little lost weight, but from the 1930’s. It was through a tun- as a mezzanine inside a great vault and freely through them with his the German federal parliament (both with a definite unhealthy puffiness nelled entrance into this portion that of the old building. A massive arch lawyers, which this time he was not the German MPs and Reporters about his features. In the morning five of us, Julian’s nominated family intruded incongruously into the prevented from doing. Without Borders at least later got Continued on page 2 2 Week l y Leaks as the US government was briefing identified as “Iceland 1” in the pre- Magistrate brings another it made no difference but just gave vious indictment. That indictment additional detail. But on 21 August had contained a “health warning” 2020, not before, it finally became over this witness given by the US pre-written judgement to clear in new US government submis- Department of Justice. This new sions that the charges themselves had indictment removed that warn- been changed. ing. But the fact was, this witness is There were now new charges Sigurdur Thordarson, who had been Assange’s hearing that were standalone and did not convicted in Iceland in relation to depend on the earlier allegations. these events of fraud, theft, stealing Continued from page 1 the cross-examination. It would also to enable them to orient themselves Even if the 18 Manning related charges WikiLeaks money and material and enable Julian Assange to hear the and reacquaint with their evidence were rejected, these new allegations impersonating Julian Assange. he appeared disengaged and disori- evidence summarised, which was before cross-examination. could still form grounds for extradi- The indictment did not state ented rather as he had at Belmarsh, important for him to follow the case This half hour for each witness tion. These new allegations included that the FBI had been “kicked out of but in the afternoon he perked up given his lack of extended access represented something of a compro- encouraging the stealing of data from Iceland for trying to use Thordarson and was very much engaged with to legal papers while in Belmarsh mise, in that at least the basic evi- a bank and from the government to frame Assange”, stated Summers his defence team, interacting as nor- prison. dence of each defence witness would of Iceland, passing information on baldly. mally as could be expected in these Baraitser stated there could not be heard by the court and the public tracking police vehicles, and hacking Summers said all these matters circumstances. be any need for evidence submitted (insofar as the public was allowed the computers both of individuals should be ventilated in these hear- Proceedings started with for- to her in writing to be repeated orally. to hear anything). But the idea that and of a security company. ings if the new charges were to be malities related to Julian’s release For the defence, Mark Summers a standard half hour guillotine is “How much of this newly heard, but the defence simply did on the old extradition warrant and QC was not prepared to drop it and sensible for all witnesses, whether alleged material is criminal is any- not have time to prepare its answers re-arrest under the new warrant, tension notably rose in the court. they are testifying to a single fact body’s guess”, stated Summers, going or its witnesses in the brief six weeks which had taken place this morn- Summers stated it was normal prac- or to developments over years, is on to explain that it was not at all it had since receiving them, even set- ing. Defence and prosecution both tice for there to be “an orderly and plainly absurd. What came over most clear that an Australian giving advice ting aside the extreme problems of agreed that the points they had already argued on the ban on extra- dition for political offences were not affected by the superseding Immediately Summers sat down, indictment. Magistrate Baraitser then made Baraitser gave her judgement on this a statement about access to the court by remote hearing, by which she point. As so often in this hearing, it meant online. She stated that a num- was a pre-written judgement. She ber of access details had been sent out by mistake by the court without read it from a laptop she had brought her agreement. She had therefore revoked their access permissions. into the courtroom with her, and As she spoke, we in the court had no idea what had happened, she had made no alterations to that but outside some consternation was document as Summers and Smith underway in that the online access of Amnesty International, of Reporters had argued the case in front of her.