CLOSER TO FREEDOM Wikileaks chief Julian Assange remains holed up in the room he has occupied since 2012. What will it take for him to move out?
His rape case has been dropped but the Wikileaks chief remains holed up in the room he has occupied since 2012. What will it take for him to move out?
When Sweden’s chief prosecutor Marianne Ny announced on May 19 she was ditching the country’s rape case against Julian Assange, many wondered if this marked the end of the Wikileaks boss’s long exile in his embassy bedsit. Instead, the 45-year-old’s game of cat and mouse with London’s Metropolitan Police continues to play out, with Assange declaring on the embassy balcony that same day, “The road is far from over; the proper war is just commencing.”
That “war” is with the United States. June 19 marks five years since Assange sought asylum in London’s Ecuadorian Embassy for fear of being extradited to America, where he faces possible espionage charges. Before he steps a foot outside, the computer programmer wants to be sure that won’t happen. “Julian still needs assurances from the UK and the US,” Wikileaks staffer Sarah Saunders tells WHO. “This exposes a bigger and more serious threat.”
IF ASSANGE WALKED OUTSIDE TODAY, WOULD HE BE ARRESTED?
Yes. Assange is still wanted by Scotland Yard for breaching bail conditions in relation to the Swedish matter (two Swedish women accused Assange of sexual assault in separate incidents in 2010). Police still guard the embassy, albeit with fewer officers than before Sweden dropped its case. Assange “remains wanted for a much less serious offence,” reads
a Scotland Yard statement. “The MPS [Metropolitan Police Service] will provide a level of resourcing which is proportionate to that offence.” If prosecuted, “the maximum would be 12 months’ imprisonment,” says William A. Schabas, a professor of international law at London’s Middlesex University, who points out it would be unlikely Assange would go to jail, given it would be his first offence in the UK: “Plus, he has had to put up with five years in the embassy. So he has already gone through lots of suffering.”
IF A PRISON SENTENCE IS UNLIKELY, WHY DOESN’T ASSANGE LEAVE THE EMBASSY?
As Assange told WHO in 2013: “I didn’t come here because of Sweden.” In the wake of Wikileaks releasing classified material, some of which was leaked by then US soldier Bradley Manning (now Chelsea Manning), Assange feared Sweden would eventually extradite him to the US to face charges of espionage. Now freed, Manning was sentenced to 35 years for leaking classified material to Wikileaks before her sentence was commuted by outgoing US President Barack Obama. Assange now fears the UK will agree to an extradition to the US. “I think [Assange] would be well-advised to steer clear of the United States for obvious reasons,” Schabas tells WHO. Says Saunders of the leaks: “Maybe the nearer to the truth you get, the more dangerous it becomes.”
HAS THE US OFFICIALLY CALLED FOR HIS EXTRADITION?
This is unknown, because the US Home Office does not confirm if such a request has been made. However, the US Attorney- General, Jeff Sessions, said earlier this year that arresting Assange was a “priority ... We are already stepping up our efforts on all leaks,” he said on April 20. “Whenever a case can be made, we will seek to put some people in jail.”
WOULD THE UK SUPPORT A MOVE TO EXTRADITE ASSANGE TO THE US?
“We look at extradition requests on a case-by-case basis,” said UK Prime Minister Theresa May last month. “In relation to Julian Assange, any decision ... would be an operational matter for the police.” Schabas says Assange’s Australian passport could be a factor in where he ends up: “I would think that the attitude [of the British authorities] would be, ‘If you can get a ticket and get out of the country and go to Australia, then we’ll take you to the airport so you can get on the next plane.’ ”
WHAT IS THE AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT DOING?
Foreign Minister Julie Bishop previously told one of Assange’s lawyers, Jennifer Robinson, that the Australian government was taking “legal advice” on what it can do to help Assange. “Australia should play an active role in negotiating the resolution of Julian’s case to end his arbitrary detention,” Robinson told WHO.
AFTER FIVE YEARS, HOW IS HE COPING?
Not well. Assange calls his time in the embassy a prison sentence. “Almost five years here in this embassy without sunlight, seven years without charge while my children grew up without me,” he said on May 19 (Assange has
at least two children, whose identities he keeps private amid concerns for their welfare). “And that is not something I can forget; it is not something I can forgive.” While his detractors have pointed out he can leave the embassy any time he wants, a UN panel found last year that the Australian was being “arbitrarily detained.” To compensate for the lack of sunlight, he uses a sunlamp, and for exercise he runs on a treadmill. Says Saunders: “The last seven years has taken its toll, and Julian and his family have paid a heavy price.”
Reported by Philip Boucher