In just a few days time, Julian Assange will be facing the judgment of the UK Supreme Court. The judgement will deem whether or not Julian will be extradited to Sweden.
The absurdity is that, despite being held under house arrest for 537 days, Julian has not been charged with any crime. You should find out more about the controversy surrounding the case here at WL Central.
It’s worth restating. 537 days of house arrest but no charge.
If the verdict goes against Julian he will be extradited to Sweden and held in solitary confinement for an indefinite period of time. If the case goes to court this will be within closed proceedings. There are widely documented inaccuracies and controversies surrounding the biased treatment he is likely to face if extradition goes ahead. You can read more here at Justice4Assange.com.
Whatever the outcome of the verdict, Julian still faces the stark probability of extradition to the US as there has been a sealed indictment against him for over a year now (read more here) and a secret grand jury has been active since 2010 (see more here). This is in reaction to the work of WikiLeaks and their efforts to instigate transformative change that will ensure all of us have the means to hold our governments to account.
Making up your own mind about this is imperative, as what is happening to Julian and, via him, to WikiLeaks is part of wider context which affects us all. Not only should we be uncomfortable with the legal structures of our society being hijacked as a political tool in silencing freedom of speech, we should feel very concerned that human beings in a democracy such as the UK can be treated in this manner.
For this is simply what is happening: a man that has not been charged with any crime has been kept under house arrest for nearly a year and a half. A journalist providing a mechanism for the dissemination of whistle-blower material is being treated as a terrorist.
We should not be OK with this.
See here for details on how to register your concerns with your MP.
Preparation for the verdict on Wednesday has already begun. You can see this post for more details. UK supporters of WikiLeaks who are able to make it to the UK Supreme Court to hear the judgement can arrange to meet up with others by joining the WikiLeaks Forum and posting here.
You should visit the Demo Kit page for resources you can print off and take down with you.
On the day you can meet up from 7:30am outside the UK Supreme Court. The judgement will be expected 9:15am.
You can visit the UK Supreme Court website to find out how to get there.
You should also check the here to find out about getting access to the courtroom for the judgement and the Supreme Courts arrangement for showing the judgement via visual feed.
Sky news will be showing the judgement live here.
After the judgement, regardless of outcome, there will remain a need to keep up momentum with our support. Global demonstrations will be planned in the preceding weeks, so keep an eye out for updates.
Stay informed and make up your own mind. If we can see something is wrong we will make a rational decision to change it.