The Lifeboat News
[ Message Archive | The Lifeboat News ]

    The Trial of Julian Assange Archived Message

    Posted by scrabb on July 7, 2023, 3:03 pm

    I've posted snippets before from this book by Nils Melzer (Verso). But just a couple of things that I'd like to share. This is the situation while the show trial of Jullian Assange is underway under judge Vanessa Baraitser:.

    ..... following the completion of Brexit, by the end of the year [2020] the UK would become completely dependant on the' special relationship' with the US and could not afford any disagreements of any issue of foreign policy. As noted by Alan Duncan, then British minister of state for Europe and the Americas, on 8 April 2019, three days before Assange's arrest: "Everything we believe in is ultimately subordinated to our not wanting to clash with the US."

    It was also this slimeball Duncan who wrote in his diary on the day Assange was dragged from the Ecuadorian embassy that he had conducted numerous interviews and press briefings that day, and during them all "it was difficult to keep the smirk off my face."

    During the trial, judge Baraitser severely restricted the number of journalists and observers who could be present in the courtroom. Instead they were kept in a separate room with a video and audio link, but the audio link was of such poor quality that they couldn't discern what was being said. Despite complaints, this fault wasn't corrected during the entire length of the trial, which lasted several weeks.

    A sidebar detail, but very telling: Assange was driven to the court from Belmarsh [the book says it took 90 minutes but this can't be right, as Woolwich Crown Court and Belmarsh are in the same vicinity] and was shackled and made to stand the entire journey in a cramped compartment. He was strip-searched a number of times before and after the journey, and locked in glass "cage" inside the courtroom without access to his lawyers, who were not permitted to speak to him, and Assange was not allowed to speak.

    Warning: don't read this book if you suffer from high blood pressure.







    Message Thread: