Tony Zappia (Makin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In two weeks time, on 20 and 21 February, the UK high court is scheduled to hear an application by Julian Assange, who is seeking leave to appeal an April 2023 court ruling that he be extradited from the UK to the USA to face 18 charges alleging that he was complicit with Chelsea Manning, a former intelligence analyst in the US Army, in unlawfully obtaining and disclosing classified US documents. An earlier request to appeal the decision was denied by the high court in June 2023.

In January 2021, UK district judge Baraitser rejected the extradition of Julian Assange on the grounds that the extradition presented a risk to his health and wellbeing. That decision was subsequently overturned in December 2021, after a successful US appeal. To be clear, the February hearing will not determine whether Julian Assange should be extradited but whether he is allowed to appeal the extradition ruling. Given the snail's pace of court decisions to date, it could be months before the two-judge court hands down its decision after the February hearing.

If leave to appeal is granted, it could then be several months after that before the appeal is heard and a further lengthy period before the court decision on the extradition is then handed down. If, at the February hearing, leave to appeal is not granted, Julian Assange's only options, as I understand it, is for him to apply to the European Court of Human Rights. There is, of course, no certainty of success in that process.

Julian Assange has now been in high-security prison Belmarsh for nearly five years. For seven years before that, he was confined to the Ecuadorian embassy, where he had sought refuge. The US charges related to the publication by Julian Assange, through WikiLeaks in 2010, of classified US government material, which, amongst other things, revealed war crimes, torture, assassinations and the list of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. Julian Assange is an Australian citizen, and the publishing occurred in the UK.

In 2013, the Obama administration did not proceed with the charges against Julian Assange, but the charges were revived by the Trump administration in 2019, arguing that he had violated the US Espionage Act of 1917. It is the first time that the 1917 espionage act has been used against a publisher.

Julian Assange's continued detention and persecution is opposed in dozens of countries by global human rights groups, journalist organisations, leading media publishers and numerous political and civic leaders. His health is deteriorating, and there is no end in sight for the court proceedings. Even if Julian Assange went to the US to face the charges against him, the legal process could take years. As others have noted, Julian Assange is being punished by process, with the legal system being used to persecute him and wear him down.

The widely held view is that the charges against Julian Assange are payback for the embarrassing WikiLeaks publications. The only early end to this 13-year saga, with the release of Julian Assange, is political intervention. With a US presidential election later this year, the likelihood of political intervention is fading. The UK government, which could also refuse the extradition, is also in an election year—possibly this year or next year.

In the meantime, Julian Assange languishes in prison, deprived of his freedom and his life with his wife and children, who are also being punished. He has never been convicted of a crime, yet he has spent the last five years in prison. His continued incarceration greatly diminishes core values of Western democracy, including free speech, the protection of whistleblowers, the right to know matters of public interest and freedom of the press.

Every day that Julian Assange remains in prison erodes US, UK and Australian moral authority in defending human rights in other parts of the world. Even people who believe that Julian Assange did wrong believe that he should now be released. He has suffered enough, and it is time that Julian Assange was set free.