The great human rights lawyer Gareth Pierce on Democracy Now Archived Message
Posted by margo on August 23, 2019, 11:08 am, in reply to "Guardian trying to make up for lost time, now they realise their complicity in hounding Assange?"
She spoke presciently... back in 2011 already, long before UN Special Rapporteur Nils Melzer issued his alarm in 2019. UK now ignores two UN calls - the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (UNWGAD) and UN Special Rapporteur on Torture. Not a good look for the UK: the world is observes this ... and many other countries who tend to look up to the UK (more than the US) are encouraged to defy and ignore UN calls themselves. For Third World citizens who rely on the help and awareness-raising that the UN does undoubtedly AMY GOODMAN: Julian Assange has talked about being fearful that if he was extradited to Sweden, he could be extradited to the United States, and that he could be sent to Guantánamo. Is this a real fear? GARETH PEIRCE: I think it’s not a real fear that he will be sent to Guantánamo. I think it is more than a real fear he will be subjected to extreme isolation and extreme punitive sentences, if convicted. And we have observed the situation of Bradley Manning and how he was confined and the extremities of the isolation he was subjected to. But we’ve also observed how there was something of an outcry about him, a protest, and that appeared to register, and his circumstances seem, just slightly, to have improved. And that informs us that it is right and appropriate to keep saying what is happening here is quite, quite wrong, intolerable, that people are punished as they attempt to assert a defense, attempt to argue back. And I just gave as a comparator a case just starting of a man prosecuted in England now for translating texts and putting them out. But he’s on bail. He’s going each day himself to his trial on bail. And if convicted, his sentence would not be what he’d want. But it would be very, very, very much smaller than what will be imposed on Tarek [Mehanna]. AMY GOODMAN: And what would it mean if Julian Assange were isolated? What would it mean for WikiLeaks? What would it mean for what you think is important? GARETH PEIRCE: I think all one can say about the infliction of isolation is it’s an attempt to destroy the human spirit and a human being, and therefore, however resilient the individual, and whoever that person is, then, in itself — it is being categorized, at this very moment, by the U.N. special rapporteur on torture, who just published a report — extended extreme isolation is itself a form of torture and is prohibited. LINK https://www.democracynow.org/2011/11/1/exclusive_julian_assanges_attorney_gareth_peirce_speaks_about_imminent_british_decision_on_whether_or_not_to_extradite_assange_to_sweden
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Message Thread:
- Guardian trying to make up for lost time, now they realise their complicity in hounding Assange? - margo August 23, 2019, 9:26 am
- Joint statement from Australian Mark Davis and Guardian's Nick Davies - margo August 23, 2019, 9:57 am
- Re: Guardian trying to make up for lost time, now they realise their complicity in hounding Assange? - margo August 23, 2019, 10:34 am
- The great human rights lawyer Gareth Pierce on Democracy Now - margo August 23, 2019, 11:08 am
- Stephania Maurizi speaks (video) - margo August 23, 2019, 4:43 pm
- Re: Guardian trying to make up for lost time, now they realise their complicity in hounding Assange? - margo August 23, 2019, 6:09 pm
- Eye-witness testimony from within court the day Assange was sentenced to a year in Belmarsh (video) - margo August 23, 2019, 6:51 pm
- Re: Guardian trying to make up for lost time, now they realise their complicity in hounding Assange? - Shyaku August 25, 2019, 12:22 am
- Good on you, Shyaku. nm - brooks August 25, 2019, 1:10 am
- Heartening, thanks! Raising awareness is a one-directional trajectory: once people 'see' ... - margo August 25, 2019, 8:22 am
- Good....nm - Keith-264 August 25, 2019, 7:14 pm
- I was amazed that people who are probably so burdened with basic survival ... - Shyaku August 26, 2019, 1:26 am
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