Ex-UN Expert: If Assange is Extradited to US No Journalist in World Will Be Safe
Ekaterina Blinova | WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange may be extradited to the US in the wake of the two-day hearing at London's High Court. What would that mean for freedom of speech? | A legal team of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is fighting to prevent his extradition to the US where he will face 17 counts of espionage and one charge of computer misuse. ● Assange, who made classified data provided to him by Chelsea (born Bradley) Manning in 2010 public, shedding light on the US' alleged war crimes during its invasions and occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq, could receive a prison term of up to 175 years.
💬 "If Assange were to be extradited to the United States, no journalist in the world would be safe," Alfred de Zayas, professor of international law in Geneva, former UN independent expert on international order (2012-18), and a retired senior lawyer with the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, told Sputnik. ● "Essentially it would mean that any journalist who publishes information that the US government does not like would be subject to persecution and prosecution. His extradition would set a very toxic precedent that the core principle of refugee law and asylum law no longer protects persons who have a well-documented fear of persecution, as codified in article 1 of the Geneva Refugee Convention."