US Charges WikiLeaks Julian Assange under Espionage Act
HAVANA TIMES – The Trump administration today disclosed 17 new criminal charges against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange under the Espionage Act for unlawfully obtaining and disclosing national defense information, reports the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)
“The indictment of Julian Assange under the Espionage Act for publishing classified information is an attack on the First Amendment and a threat to all journalists everywhere who publish information that governments would like to keep secret,” said CPJ’s Executive Director Joel Simon. “Press freedom in the United States and around the world is imperiled by this prosecution.”
In early April, the Trump administration unsealed a separate indictment against Assange, alleging that he had violated the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) in the course of his work obtaining and publishing documents from Chelsea Manning, a former U.S. Army intelligence analyst. British authorities arrested Assange after Ecuadoran officials lifted his protection in their embassy in London, where he had been since 2012, on April 11, 2019. The U.S. is seeking his extradition from the U.K.
I believe in a free press. But Wikileaks is not a newspaper or a journal. Assange has been properly detained having broken the conditions of bail following prolonged legal proceedings in the UK in response to the Swedish request for extradition upon sexual assault charges. He should stand trial in Sweden.
It was Assange’s choice to skulk in the Embassy to avoid facing those charges in Sweden. Wonder what the MeToo movement thinks about him? Let the Swedish Court do their work first.