Assange Show Trial: Craig Murray's daily court reports

[Harvey]

Stefania Maurizi, Brian Eno, Roger Waters, Yanis Varoufakis and Ken Loach in a discussion which is worthy of its own thread.

[Belligerent Savant]

.

Good thing the White House 'switched parties', eh?

Ignoring Pleas of Press Freedom Defenders, Biden DOJ Files Appeal to Extradite Julian Assange


The Biden Justice Department on Friday formally appealed a British judge's rejection of the U.S. request to extradite Julian Assange, confirming the new administration's intention to run with its predecessor's espionage charges against the WikiLeaks publisher despite warnings that the case endangers press freedoms around the world.

"Yes, we filed an appeal and we are continuing to pursue extradition," Marc Raimondi, a Justice Department spokesperson, told AFP on Friday, the deadline for the U.S. to appeal Judge Vanessa Baraitser's ruling from last month.

"The Assange case could allow prosecutors to build criminal cases against journalists who obtain government secrets based on their interactions with their sources."
—James Risen, The Intercept

If extradited to the U.S., Assange could face up to 175 years in a maximum-security prison—conditions under which Assange would likely commit suicide, Baraitser warned in her decision.

"Disappointing that the Biden administration should do this given the chilling effect the ongoing pursuit of Julian Assange will have on press freedom," Stefan Simanowitz, Amnesty International's media manager for Europe, tweeted in response to the Biden administration's appeal.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/ ... ite-julian

[Harvey]

It appears Craig Murray, former British Ambassador, whistle-blower, historian, author and journalist might soon be about to join Julian Assange as a political prisoner to the ruling elites of the British Isles.

https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2021/03/the-world-darkens-a-little-more-i-may-have-to-spend-some-time-as-a-political-prisoner/

The World Darkens a Little More: I May Have to Spend Some Time as a Political Prisoner
March 22, 2021 by Craig Murray

I suspect I should say as little as possible in the next few days. With apologies to The National, I have copied their story out from behind their firewall.

BEGINS

A FORMER diplomat has instructed his lawyers to begin preparations for an appeal to the Supreme Court after learning he had lost a contempt of court case over his reports from the trial of Alex Salmond in March last year.

Craig Murray, the former UK ambassador to Uzbekistan, attended two days of the trial – at which Salmond was found innocent – and sat in the public gallery, later writing about it for his blog.

However, in January he faced a virtual contempt of court hearing before Lady Dorrian, the Lord Justice Clerk, at the High Court of Justiciary in Edinburgh.

It is now understood that a session for judgement to be delivered will be held at the High Court before Lady Dorrian, Lord Turnbull and Lord Menzies on Thursday – exactly eight weeks after the initial 90-minute hearing.

Sources close to Murray, 62, indicated that he was advised by court staff and his legal team that if he won the case, the judgement would simply be published.

However, if he lost, and particularly if a custodial sentence was probable, there would be a new hearing of the court – which has now been called.

Contempt of court carries a maximum sentence of two years in prison and an unlimited fine.

Last month, Clive Thomson, a 52-year-old from Rosyth, was jailed for six months for contempt in the same case.

Murray is expected to stand as a candidate for Action for Independence (AFI) on the Lothians list in May’s Holyrood election.

READ MORE: Craig Murray bids to lead Action For Independence’s list in the Lothians

However, if sentenced to a year or more in jail, he will be disqualified from standing.

Murray was accused of contempt over publications likely to influence the jury and with jigsaw identification of complainants.

His defence argued that if the Crown believed these were likely to influence the jury, then action should have been taken before the trial and not after.

On jigsaw identification, his counsel, John Scott QC, argued that Murray had known the identity of all the complainants for months and had taken care not to give them away.

He argued: “[Murray] was aware of the names of the complainers, even when there was no court order regarding them. But he said it would not be responsible journalism to have named them.

“The Crown appears to say there must be a deliberate campaign to drop enough hints so that the complainers can be identified.

“There is a great deal of evidence showing he was not someone who was fixated on naming the complainers and dropping hints to identify.

“The fact alone is that he knew about the names and if he wanted to name them, he could have done so.”

In the two months between the hearing and judgement, he has said on social media that the delay was taking a toll on his family and on his mental health.

One member of the Murray family told The National: “Objective evidence shows that mainstream media published far more jigsaw identification pieces than Craig and were not prosecuted.”

Asked how Murray felt about the possibility of being jailed, they said: “Well, obviously not happy.

“Nadira and he have a one-month-old son and he’s not in good health nor getting any younger.

“But never underestimate his commitment and principle – he is a lot tougher than he looks.”

ENDS

I should be grateful if you would now go to the National Website and poke about a bit so they don’t lose any advertising revenue.

[stickdog99]

Wow.

Anybody who stands for anything principled now appears to be directly in the crosshairs.

[Grizzly]

https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/
Maintenance mode

Temporary Blog Closure
March 24, 2021 in Uncategorized by craig

In view of our understanding that the High Court has found some articles on this blog to be in contempt of court, and in view of the fact that the Crown Office had sought to censor such a large range of articles, this blog has no choice but to go dark from 15.00 today until some time after tomorrow’s court hearing, when it will be specified to us precisely how much of the truth we have to expunge before we can bring the blog back up.

This is a dark day for the entire team here. We will be looking to appeal this to the Supreme Court and if required (though we very much doubt it will be) to the European Court of Human Rights.

Posted by: Bluedotterel | Mar 24 2021 16:46 utc | 1

https://www.moonofalabama.org/2021/03/o ... c641ea200c

[Harvey]

An excerpt of this was posted with regard to Roger Waters being solicited by Mark Zuckerberg to sell Facebook and Instagram the rights to use Another Brick in the Wall for their promotional garbage after which Waters advises Zuckerberg to 'fuck off'. I thought it was worth posting a link to the whole thing.

Aaron Mate, Roger Waters, Chris Hedges, Randy Credico and John & Gabriel Shipton in discussion on Assange.

[Grizzly]

I've purposely kept away from this thread, simply because it makes my stomach sink and my heart hurt just reading the title. But I'm still grateful you guys post news about the blonde down under even if it's peripheral.

Truth is, even if he were freed today, he's probably so far destroyed, he'll never be the same. Sad. Soul sick sad.

[Harvey]

[stickdog99]

amen

[BenDhyan]

A possible AUSUK arrangement...

Washington to let Julian Assange serve sentence in Australia if convicted after extradition to US, legal document shows

27 Oct, 2021

Lawyers acting on behalf of the US government have “provided assurance” to a UK extradition hearing that any custodial sentence imposed on WikiLeaks founder Assange by an American court would be allowed to be served in Australia.

The US government has begun its appeal against an initial decision by a UK court that denied a request to extradite Assange, claiming there was a high risk he would commit suicide if handed over to American law enforcement.

At the start of the two-day hearing in the High Court in London, in an attempt to address concerns about allowing his extradition, the US said it would allow him to serve any sentence in his homeland. “The United States has provided an assurance that [it] will consent to Mr. Assange being transferred to Australia to serve any custodial sentence imposed on him,” a legal document submitted by US government lawyers stated.

Earlier this year, the US government claimed it was “extremely disappointed” that UK District Judge Vanessa Baraitser had rejected its attempts to extradite the WikiLeaks co-founder to face charges because she was of the view that he would be likely to take his own life in a maximum-security facility. The US has since stated that he would not be held in the highest-security prison.

Assange was detained in the UK in 2019 after skipping bail and spending seven years inside the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, following an attempt by Sweden to extradite him to face allegations of sexual assault, which were later dropped. Assange had argued that the Swedish extradition request was simply to allow America to eventually detain him over publishing classified documents about the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

https://www.rt.com/news/538583-us-assan ... mpaign=RSS

[stickdog99]

A possible AUSUK arrangement...

Washington to let Julian Assange serve sentence in Australia if convicted after extradition to US, legal document shows

27 Oct, 2021

Lawyers acting on behalf of the US government have “provided assurance” to a UK extradition hearing that any custodial sentence imposed on WikiLeaks founder Assange by an American court would be allowed to be served in Australia.

The US government has begun its appeal against an initial decision by a UK court that denied a request to extradite Assange, claiming there was a high risk he would commit suicide if handed over to American law enforcement.

At the start of the two-day hearing in the High Court in London, in an attempt to address concerns about allowing his extradition, the US said it would allow him to serve any sentence in his homeland. “The United States has provided an assurance that [it] will consent to Mr. Assange being transferred to Australia to serve any custodial sentence imposed on him,” a legal document submitted by US government lawyers stated.

Earlier this year, the US government claimed it was “extremely disappointed” that UK District Judge Vanessa Baraitser had rejected its attempts to extradite the WikiLeaks co-founder to face charges because she was of the view that he would be likely to take his own life in a maximum-security facility. The US has since stated that he would not be held in the highest-security prison.

Assange was detained in the UK in 2019 after skipping bail and spending seven years inside the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, following an attempt by Sweden to extradite him to face allegations of sexual assault, which were later dropped. Assange had argued that the Swedish extradition request was simply to allow America to eventually detain him over publishing classified documents about the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

https://www.rt.com/news/538583-us-assan ... mpaign=RSS

So Australia is now the USA's new penal colony.

[Harvey]

Begins at 00:07 minutes:

[Harvey]

Reports in German media that Julian is being routinely drugged now, barely able to follow proceedings. Depressing stuff.

Stella Morris speaking to Max Blumenthal.

[Harvey]

Craigs out! And of course, he came out fighting!

@28 minutes

[Harvey]

Much better sound (no wind)