UK court capitulates to US demands and allows extradition of truth-teller Julian Assange

<span style="font-weight: 400;">London - The UK Court of Appeals’ decision to allow the extradition of journalist and truth-teller Julian Assange represents a complete capitulation of the UK legal system to US demands. Assange is a political prisoner of the War on Terror, and as such must be protected from the US’s witch hunt against him.</span> <span style="font-weight: 400;">This follows in the example of the high profile cases of Babar Ahmad, Talha Ahsan and others who were extradited and held in torturous conditions at US Supermax prisons. The lopsided UK-US extradition treaty in effect subcontracts the entire British legal framework with its centuries old traditions and legal protections to work as a branch of the US prosecution.</span> <b>Commenting on the Judgment, Muhammad Rabbani, Managing Director of CAGE:</b> <span style="font-weight: 400;">“Assange’s crime is having the courage to hold the US to account. Should the Home Secretary now allow his extradition, it will forever be an indictment of the Government’s betrayal to free speech, true journalistic investigation and accountability.”</span> <span style="font-weight: 400;">“The extradition is a political witch hunt against Assange for his attempts to check and expose the abuses of the US War on Terror. As such he’s a political prisoner of the War on Terror. If the US as Secretary of State Antony Blinken is committed to defending political prisoners as his recent speech suggests, then the US must demonstrate that and drop its case against Assange.”</span> <span style="font-weight: 400;">“We join the thousands of supporters of Julian Assange in condemning this judgement and demanding he is set free immediately.”</span> &nbsp; <em>Image used with credit from <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/dgcomsoc/14953880621/">Flikr</a></em>