Assange garners support of renowned artist Ai
Chinese activist makes plea against extradition
LONDON — The dissident Chinese contemporary artist Ai Weiwei staged a silent protest outside London’s Old Bailey court on Monday against the possible extradition of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange to the United States, where he is wanted on an array of espionage charges.
The court, meanwhile, heard that Assange, if convicted in the U.S., could end up spending the rest of his life imprisoned in the federal Supermax prison in Florence, Colorado. The facility is home to Unabomber Ted Kaczynski, Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, 1993 World Trade Center mastermind Ramzi Yousef and Zacarias Moussaoui, the only man ever convicted in a U.S. court for a role in the Sept. 11 attacks.
U.S. prosecutors have indicted the 49-year-old Assange on 17 espionage charges and one charge of computer misuse over Wikileaks’ publication of secret American military documents a decade ago. The charges carry a maximum sentence of 175 years in prison.
In addition to arguing that the extradition would pose a threat to
Assange’s life, his defense team says that Assange is a journalist and entitled to First Amendment protections for the publication of leaked documents that exposed U.S. military wrongdoing in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Ai, 63, is one of the world’s most
successful artists, famous around the world for his installations of bicycles and sunflower seeds. In his native China, he was alternately encouraged, tolerated and harassed, spending time in detention and being barred for years from leaving the country. He was arrested at Beijing’s airport in April 2011 and held for 81 days. He is now based in Berlin and in the U.K.
On Monday, the court heard from two witnesses who said Assange would face intolerable conditions if extradited.
It is widely asserted that Assange would be moved to the pretrial facilities at Alexandria Detention Center in Virginia if extradited.
Yancey Ellis, a Virginia-based lawyer who has had clients at the facility, said Assange would likely be put into an administrative segregation unit for months or even years that would be akin to “solitary confinement.”
And Joel Sickler, who heads the Justice Advocacy Group, said Assange would face “no meaningful interaction” in pretrial confinement in a cell the size of “a parking space.”
Sickler also said Assange would face the “real risk” of special administrative measures, or SAMS, being imposed on him by the U.S. attorney general if convicted. The imposition of such measures could further curtail Assange’s links and communications to the outside world as well as his movements in prison.
Sickler said it was highly likely that Assange could be sent to the Supermax facility in Colorado. The prison is so secure, remote and austere that it has been dubbed the “Alcatraz of the Rockies.”