(Un)expectedly: UK Court Sets Assange U.S. Extradition Hearing For February 2020

[rainman + 263]

The full extradition hearing to decide whether Wikileaks founder Julian Assange should be sent to the United States to face accusations including spying charges will take place in February next year, a London court ruled on Friday.Assange, 47, faces 18 counts in the U.S. including conspiring to hack government computers and violating an espionage law. He could spend decades in prison if convicted. It is important that people aren’t fooled into believing that WikiLeaks is anything but a publisher,” said Assange, who appeared by videolink from a London prison, dressed in a grey T-shirt and wearing black-framed glasses. “The U.S. government has tried to mislead the press,” he told Westminster Magistrates’ Court. As Ben Brandon, the lawyer representing the United States, ran through a summary of the charges against him including that he had cracked a U.S. Defense network password, Assange said: “I didn’t hack anything.”

[pinto + 293]

Assange’s lawyers say he is “resident in health care” at Belmarsh prison. He has no access to a computer and court documents have to be sent to him by post.

[francoba + 93]

The English courts have not refused him any of his rights at all. He's being treated exactly, if not more favorably, than any other convict or suspect would be.I mean, it's a prison, not a summer house...

[50 shades of black + 254]

Innocent until proven guilty...

[Pavel + 384]

11 minutes ago, pinto said:

Assange’s lawyers say he is “resident in health care” at Belmarsh prison. He has no access to a computer and court documents have to be sent to him by post.

Assange is serving a 50-week sentence in jail for jumping bail ... For now .. we will see what will happen in February next year

[ThunderBlade + 231]

Eternal dilemma: where is the line between lies and truth, what's behind it...

[Jan van Eck + 7,558]

51 minutes ago, ThunderBlade said:

Eternal dilemma: where is the line between lies and truth, what's behind it...

I think it is safe to say that, when it comes to Assange, anything and everything the US lawyers at the Dept. of Justice  (DOJ) tell anybody is a flat-out lie.  Those guys have no concept of being truthful, and of their duties and obligations of full, fair, frank and candid disclosure to the Courts.  As far as the Press goes, they will lie all day, every day.  It is the cultural nature of the DOJ. 

What is behind it is that Assange has committed the cardinal sin of embarrassing the Government.  That is an even worse sin than shooting the President.  There is Nothing worse than embarrassing the Government.  Assange will be dragged back to the USA in chains, then subjected to a farcical disgrace of a Kangaroo Court,  pronounced Guilty (you already knew that was coming)  and slowly murdered in jail, by a combination of isolation cells, chaining, sensory deprivation, no exercise, cold, continuing 24-hour light bulbs, and complete lack of any semblance of medical care. He has embarrassed the Deep State, so bye-bye Julian Assange.

And if Assange is not extradited, a hit team will be dispatched to kill him. 

Assange is already a dead man. 

[Jan van Eck + 7,558]

1 hour ago, francoba said:

The English courts have not refused him any of his rights at all. He's being treated exactly, if not more favorably, than any other convict or suspect would be.I mean, it's a prison, not a summer house...

No chance.  He could have been issued a signature release until trial. 

As to the argument that Assange "jumped bail," that is not exactly accurate.  Assange never ran away.  He placed himself into custody.  Admittedly, that was in the custody of an Embassy, but the UK Courts knew exactly where he was for the last decade. And he was locked away inside a custodial building, admittedly with the ingenious twist that he himself was the jailor with the key.  Still, in custody.  So there, British Courts. Did not jump bail.  Come and get him  (if you can convince his new jailors, the Ecuadorans, to release him to you). 

[Michael Sanches + 187]

3 hours ago, Jan van Eck said:

There is Nothing worse than embarrassing the Government.   

I disagree. The worst thing is to cheat on your taxes. Just ask Al Capone. You can kill a thousand people . . . ho hum. But, when you mess with their payroll . . . 

Don't mess with the IRS.

[ronwagn + 6,290]

7 hours ago, pinto said:

Assange’s lawyers say he is “resident in health care” at Belmarsh prison. He has no access to a computer and court documents have to be sent to him by post.

 

7 hours ago, pinto said:

Assange’s lawyers say he is “resident in health care” at Belmarsh prison. He has no access to a computer and court documents have to be sent to him by post.

I wonder if he will be allowed written communication that is censored by the authorities yet available to the press. Do you know?

[ronwagn + 6,290]

7 hours ago, francoba said:

The English courts have not refused him any of his rights at all. He's being treated exactly, if not more favorably, than any other convict or suspect would be.I mean, it's a prison, not a summer house...

Does he have a right to communicate with the press etc. even if it may be censored to some extent?

[ronwagn + 6,290]

6 hours ago, Jan van Eck said:

I think it is safe to say that, when it comes to Assange, anything and everything the US lawyers at the Dept. of Justice  (DOJ) tell anybody is a flat-out lie.  Those guys have no concept of being truthful, and of their duties and obligations of full, fair, frank and candid disclosure to the Courts.  As far as the Press goes, they will lie all day, every day.  It is the cultural nature of the DOJ. 

What is behind it is that Assange has committed the cardinal sin of embarrassing the Government.  That is an even worse sin than shooting the President.  There is Nothing worse than embarrassing the Government.  Assange will be dragged back to the USA in chains, then subjected to a farcical disgrace of a Kangaroo Court,  pronounced Guilty (you already knew that was coming)  and slowly murdered in jail, by a combination of isolation cells, chaining, sensory deprivation, no exercise, cold, continuing 24-hour light bulbs, and complete lack of any semblance of medical care. He has embarrassed the Deep State, so bye-bye Julian Assange.

And if Assange is not extradited, a hit team will be dispatched to kill him. 

Assange is already a dead man. 

I hope he gets a fair deal and eventually pardoned. Maybe even in a second term of President Trump. I think he has suffered enough. I find the timing interesting, that they would wait until the end of Trump's first term. I do want to know how he got the information. I am afraid that man was shot in the back in D.C. 

[Jan van Eck + 7,558]

2 hours ago, ronwagn said:

Does he have a right to communicate with the press etc. even if it may be censored to some extent?

No.   If he has an attorney, and there is no court-issued gag Order, then his attorney could speak to the press. Most attorneys  (barristers, over there) do not do so, as they fear irritating the Judge.  So you have this environment of self-censorship, which in my view is pernicious and degrading.  

[ronwagn + 6,290]

Even Hitler was allowed to write Mein Kampf. 

[Jan van Eck + 7,558]

1 minute ago, ronwagn said:

Even Hitler was allowed to write Mein Kampf. 

Uncle Adolf had developed the skill set of assembling a PR team...

[ronwagn + 6,290]

I would love for Assange to find a work around.

[John Foote + 1,135]

23 hours ago, Michael Sanches said:

Don't mess with the IRS.

Once upon, not any more. The Church of Scientology wore the IRS down and beat them. In recent history the IRS put together an elite unit to go after uber money for entities it's clearly obvious are cheating. The IRS found now matter how hard they tried, that are completely outgunned by the uber-rich. 

But for 99.98% of us, yet, the IRS can ruin are day.