Julian Assange: what will be the fate of the ‘hacker’ who exposed the secrets of the United States? | WikiLeaks

For some he is a hunted by the great powers, for others he is a simple unscrupulous hacker. Julian Assange, the white-haired Australian and founder of WikiLeaks, is a character who has divided the waters for a decade.

The recent decision of the British justice to practically put him on a silver platter for his extradition to USA, where 175 years in prison would await him, has once again put the discussion in the inkwell: is it Assange really a victim?

However, for the internationalist Francisco Belaunde Matossian, not everything is said in the case Assange: “It is still not 100% that he is extradited because a last instance of the Supreme Court in the United Kingdom is missing. Once they decide, it is the British government that takes the last word, but it is likely that they will speak out in the same vein as the court. “

Since 2010 WikiLeaks became a dangerous word for the governments of the world, especially for USA, due to the large number of leaked documents prepared by their embassies and which exposed their strategies and interests in different countries. One of his most serious publications was undoubtedly the so-called “Afghanistan Papers” that exposed his practices in the war in that country, as well as in Iraq and in the Guantanamo detention center.

Although the leaks revealed clandestine operations and torture, they also exposed the identities of thousands of informants. Justly, USA He wants to try him for 18 crimes of espionage and computer intrusion.

Is it convenient for the first power to have a media judgment in its territory with a character as controversial as Assange?

“On USA you could receive a very long jail sentence. But you have to remember two issues “, adds Belaunde Matossian. “First, Assange is being prosecuted for having incited and helped to ‘hack’ former soldier and intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning, for having contributed to an illegal operation such as hacking into the North American system to vent its secrets. And the second is more complicated because it has to do with the right to freedom of the press, since he contacted the most important media in the world so that documents considered state secrets could be published ”.

For the internationalist, the second issue is the most complex as it will lead to a long discussion on freedom of expression and could even reach the US Supreme Court. Nevertheless, “The court is now controlled by a conservative majority and could tip the balance against it.”

“If the extradition proceeds, an interesting judicial debate will be generated in the country”, considers.

Deprived of freedom

AssangeThe now 50-year-old was initially arrested in the UK in 2010 at the behest of Sweden for an alleged sexual offense case, which was later dismissed. To date, the Australian has not been convicted of any crime.

He was first under house arrest, but then he took refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where he remained under the protective wing of the Rafael Correa government since 2012. But in 2019, President Lenín Moreno decided to end his stay and was taken away. to prison.

His long confinement in the Ecuadorian embassy extinguished his media prominence, but in November 2016 WikiLeaks intervened in the American elections, which ended with the triumph of Donald Trump, when he revealed a series of emails from the Democratic Hillary Clinton campaign, which would have been leaked by Russia.

As time went by, the big media that published his leaks began to withdraw their support. As AFP points out, old friends and collaborators of his turned their backs on him and called him “egocentric”, “obsessive” and “paranoid”.

“The man who claims to reveal the secrets of the world, cannot bear his own”, sentenced Andrew O’Hagan, who was asked to write a biography of Assange and ended up throwing in the towel.

But others, such as the Australian journalist Mary Kostakidis, who visited him in the Ecuadorian legation in 2013 and in the London jail in 2019, assure that he is “the complete opposite of a narcissist.” “He is a man with principles, very determined, very committed to the project”, he assured the newspaper “Sunday Morning Herald” two years ago.

“There are still people who support him, but he is a controversial character who did not have a problem disclosing data that was really private. Even several media stopped publishing their leaks. In addition, in the embassy of Ecuador in London he behaved very badly and the government of Lenín Moreno at the time detailed rough things “, says Belaúnde Matossian.

Several people in his environment have indicated that Assange You could suffer from Asperger syndrome, a type of autism that affects social relationships.

Precisely, one of the arguments of the defense was that the journalist could commit suicide if he is transferred to USA. However, the London Court of Appeal agreed with Washington in its appeal, even though it had initially considered this risk.

A last chance

Meanwhile the extradition is resolved, Assange He will remain in pre-trial detention at Belmarsh Prison in London.

Stella Moris, the journalist’s girlfriend and mother of his two minor children, has already announced that they will appeal “as soon as possible” the “unfair” ruling.

“How can it be fair, how can it be right, how can it be possible, to extradite Julian to the country that tried to assassinate him?” stated the lawyer, referring to an alleged plot by the CIA -revealed last September- to kidnap and kill Julian Assange when he was a refugee in the Ecuadorian embassy in London.

The organization for the defense of human rights Amnesty International (AI) said for its part that “you cannot trust” the guarantees offered by EE. UU. and called for the charges to be dropped.

Former Spanish judge Baltasar Garzón, coordinator of the activist’s international defense, in turn expressed his “deepest disagreement” with the ruling of the English court and assured that “all resources will be exhausted.”

During the trial last October, the US prosecutor James Lewis guaranteed that if extradited Assange You will not be subjected to special administrative measures, such as being banned from visits or correspondence, nor will you enter a maximum security jail, such as the ADX Florence in Colorado.

The justice of USA He has also promised that he will receive psychological treatment and that even, if convicted, he could serve the sentence in Australia, his native country.

However, for the lawyer of Julian AssangeEdward Fitzgerald, “none of this prevents” your client from being placed in special solitary confinement or simply changing their minds about the special administrative measures.