Magistrate Brings Another Pre-Written Judgement to Assange's Hearing
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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 Week l y Leaks 3 as the US government was briefing identified as “Iceland 1” in the pre- whistleblowers and the necessity of She read it from a laptop she had prepared before she had heard the after lunch as various procedural to adjourn was refused. Magistrate brings another it made no difference but just gave vious indictment. That indictment revealing war crimes by stating that brought into the courtroom with lawyers argue the case before her. I wrangles were addressed behind The courtroom atmosphere additional detail. But on 21 August had contained a “health warning” there can have been no such neces- her, and she had made no alterations understood she already had seen the closed doors. As the court resumed, was now highly charged. Having 2020, not before, it finally became over this witness given by the US sity to hack into a bank in Iceland. to that document as Summers and outline written arguments, but surely Mark Summers for the defence stood in the morning refused to cut out pre-written judgement to clear in new US government submis- Department of Justice. This new Summers concluded that the Smith had argued the case in front of this was wrong. What was the point up with a bombshell. the superseding indictment on the sions that the charges themselves had indictment removed that warn- “case should be confined to that her. in the lawyers arguing for hours if the Summers said that the defence grounds that the remedy for lack of been changed. ing. But the fact was, this witness is conduct which the American govern- Baraitser stated that she had judgement was pre-written? What I “recognised” the judgement Baraitser time should be more time, Baraitser There were now new charges Sigurdur Thordarson, who had been ment had seen fit to allege in the eigh- been asked as a preliminary move to really wanted to know was how far had just made – a very careful choice was now refusing to give more time. Assange’s hearing that were standalone and did not convicted in Iceland in relation to teen months of the case” before their excise from the case certain conduct this was normal practice. of word, as opposed to “respected” The defence had called her bluff; the depend on the earlier allegations. these events of fraud, theft, stealing second new indictment. alleged. Mr Summers had described The lawyer replied to me that it which might seem more natural. As state had apparently been confident 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 Replying to Summers for the the receipt of new allegations as absolutely was not normal practice, she had ruled that the remedy to lack that the effective solitary confine- enable Julian Assange to hear the and reacquaint with their evidence were rejected, these new allegations impersonating Julian Assange. prosecution, Joel Smith QC replied extraordinary. However “I offered the it was totally outrageous. In a long of time was more time, the defence ment in Belmarsh was so terrible he appeared disengaged and disori- evidence summarised, which was before cross-examination. could still form grounds for extradi- The indictment did not state that the judge was obliged by the defence the opportunity to adjourn and distinguished career, this lawyer was applying for an adjournment to that Assange would not request more 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 statute to consider the new charges the case” to give them time to prepare had very occasionally seen it done, enable them to prepare the answers time. I rather suspect that Julian was 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 could not excise them.