Craig Murray writes about the trials of Julian Assange
JVL Introduction
Craig Murray, recently released from a Scottish prison, was present to hear the High Court judgment in the Julian Assange extradition case.
He gives an excellent account of the political and moral issues at stake as well as of how the convoluted legal processes are operating.
The defence is reduced to making arguments against extradition based on Assange’s mental health alone. It is not permitted to be talk about freedom of speech or the exposure of US war crimes – real substance of the case.
Murray’s judgment is bleak “The state also is happy that this convoluted Supreme Court and then cross-appeal process will last for years not months, even before we look at the European Court of Human Rights, and all that time Julian Assange is stuck in high security in Belmarsh jail, treated as a terrorist, and his mental and physical health are visibly deteriorating in a way that is simply horrible. It is not hyperbole to state we may well be watching his slow murder by the state.”
This article was originally published by Craig Murray's blog on Mon 13 Dec 2021. Read the original here.
Your Man Back in the Public Gallery: Assange Extradition, US Appeal Result
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I remember when many people who considered themselves to be on the Corbyn left of Labour were screaming for Assange to be extradited to Sweden when there wasn’t even an extradition request FROM Sweden on the table. They called him a Trumpist right-winger merely for releasing true but unflattering information about war criminal Hilary Clinton. I’d like to say that they’re probably ashamed of themselves now, but I seriously doubt they’re capable of it.
The Royal Courts of Injustice complicit in the State torture and possible murder of Julian Assange for telling the truth.
The West is corrupt from back to front, we can have no pride in anything of authority, they know it and do not care. My heart hurts for Assange.
Bear in mind that, even if “the appalling standard of healthcare is the single worst thing about prison”, that standard is far higher than it used to be when it was administered by prison staff and not the NHS which took it over around 2000. British prisons have always been dehumanising, dangerous and disgraceful places in which working class men and a few women are punished.
Assange is guilty of espionage, regardless of the substance of the information he helped steal and publish.
Does ‘Ed’ know the meaning of the word or concept of espionage? And how does he defend his quaint notion that the US – or indeed the UK – government – have any rights over the information they extort and the crimes they commit? Can the lickspitttles of those governments really not do better than this?
Watching this slow murder by a thousand cuts is both heartbreaking and enraging. The bitter irony that those whose hands are covered in blood should be pursuing a journalist and publisher for exposing the truth about their bloody wars is outrageous. One can imagine how the msm would be shouting from the rooftops if a Chinese or Russian journalist were to be treated in this manner. Their silence on Assange is as outrageous as his persecution by the world’s biggest terrorist – the United States of America.
What is Ed saying Assange is guilty of espionage, has he heard of the Lord Melchett’s defence? Anyway all governments practise espionage daily.
I think people are being encouraged to look the other way while the British State quietly tortures Julian Assange. He acted in the public interest. The U.K. and U.S. governments, by pursuing a path in which what is in the public interest is irrelevant, are making clear their loyalty only to power.