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Thursday, April 11, 2019

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, 47, today appeared at an extradition hearing in SPECIFIC COURT, London to determine whether he will be sent to the United States, where he faces charges of conspiracy to commit computer intrusion.

Assange, an Australian, was arrested April 11 in London at the Ecuadorean embassy, where he had been living in asylum since 2012. Assange faces legal issues in United Kingdom, the United States, and possibly Sweden for various alleged conspiracy, espionage, cyber, and sex crimes.

Ecuadorian president Lenin Moreno said he found Assange in violation of the terms of his asylum after it became clear he was still politically active with continued involvement in the Wikileaks operation. Assange’s actions within the embassy also became an issue. He allegedly threatened employees, interfered with embassy guards, installed surveillance equipment, and neglected his own hygiene. He also allegedly attempted to blackmail Moreno by threatening to release images, text messages, and other materials if Ecuador moved forward with nullifying his asylum status enlisting Ola Bini, as an alleged co-conspirator, and was arrested the same day.

UK authorities said the Ecuadorean government informed them Assange’s asylum had been revoked and formally allowed Metropolitan Police to enter the sovereign embassy for the arrest. Assange was first taken to a Central London Police Station and then transported to the Westminster Magistrates’ Court, where he pleaded not guilty to a 2012 failure to appear in court after a bail bond expired, carrying up to 12-months in prison. District Judge Michael Snow ultimately ruled Assange was guilty sending him to Southwark Crown Court for further sentencing.

US authorities have formally requested their UK counterparts for an extradition hearing currently scheduled for May 2, 2019, on an initial charge of one count of conspiracy to commit computer intrusion in connection with leaks of classified US documents starting in 2010. The US Department of Justice (DoJ) have compiled communications where an intelligence analyst identified as then-US Army Pvt. Chelsea Manning. Manning was later Court-martialed in 2013 and shown to have provided Wikileaks with 700,000 videos, documents, and other files compromising US intelligence and security. The US indictment of Assange alleges, “[Assange] agreed to assist Manning in cracking a password stored on United States Defense Department computers.”

The US DoJ may broaden the charges invoking the Espionage, Computer and Cybersecurity, Security and Secrecy Acts as extradition proceedings are formalized. Major areas of interest are the materials regarding the publication of emails and other electronic documents from the Democratic Nation Committee leaders like Hilary Clinton’s presidential campaign chair John Podesta. According to the Special Council’s report, Robert Mueller did determine the source was of Russian origin. Another incident of interest is the 2017 releases of US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) hacking capabilities known as the “Vault 7” leak which enlisted a still not publicly known CIA employee.

Assange’s attorney, Barry Pollack, commented on the U.S. charges: “While the indictment against Julian Assange disclosed today charges a conspiracy to commit computer crimes, the factual allegations against Mr. Assange boil down to encouraging a source to provide him information and taking efforts to protect the identity of that source. Journalists around the world should be deeply troubled by these unprecedented criminal charges.”

Swedish authorities may also seek Assange’s extradition over rapes allegedly occurring in 2012 which was major factor in seeking asylum. Assange denied the allegations and the investigation was later dropped, but Swedish law permits the authorities there to re-open it before the Statute of Limitations runs out next year.

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