By Mathew Carr
Jan. 19-20, 2024: David Davis, member of the ruling Conservatives political party in Britain, spoke Thursday night in London at a rally to deepen support against the extradition of jailed Julian Assange, the whistleblower and journalist, to the US.
Assange, accused by the US of espionage while he was mostly reporting American warcrimes and other wrongdoing, is appealing his extradition in court Feb. 20, 21.
Here is a recording of a key section of Davis’s speech.
Davis told people at the meeting that the “harsh reality” is Assange will not get a fair trial in the US, will be refused bail, shackled, kept from his own evidence and made to look guilty before the hearings even start.
Unfortunately, due to the ongoing legal nature of the case against Julian Assange and the complexity of US court documents, publicly available citations for the 17 Espionage Act counts against Assange are not easily accessible in a single, readily shareable format. The allegations include theft and hacking. Craig Murray’s account is one of the best of the litigation I’ve seen.
“His chances of acquittal would be near zero,” Davis said Monday to a crowd he’s probably not that familiar with. “This [the US judiciary] is not really a justice system that you or I would recognize. A justice system with a conviction rate of 97%, largely achieved by a plea bargaining system, which threatens enormous, enormous sentences if you don’t comply [175 years for Assange, for instance, he said].”
It’s hard to overstate the importance of Assange’s appeal against extradition, and not only because the vague allegations against him are an outrage against press freedom.
A Trump Gift?
Should Britain deliver Assange to America in the lead up to the US presidential election later this year, it could give a leg up to Donald Trump’s race for arguably the most influential job in the world. Trump has demonised journalists for pointing out his many failures and corruptions. He’s attacked Assange specifically. Joe Biden’s side did not fare much better from Assange’s publishing.
“The chronology of … prosecutorial actions in relation to Mr Assange, suggests that it paralleled the overt expression of hostility by President Trump to the press generally as enemies, and the reporting of accurate news being dismissed as ‘fake news’ and of whistleblowers as ‘traitors’, widening the gulf between reporting of state actions and the desire of government for preserving secrets,” said Paul Rogers, Emeritus Professor of Peace Studies at Bradford University, who was a witness in the 2020 litigation [he said this at the time]. See full statement below.
So Assange’s case is an opportunity for a judiciary to actually do its job and protect real people from abuse of power — a chance to stand up against authoritarian political and concentrated corporate power, which increasingly seems to think it can ignore what ordinary people actually want.
This context was not lost on Davis this week.
“Everybody deserves a fair trial,” no matter your political, religious or economic persuasion, and Assange would not get one in the US, Davis said. A British trial would be more suitable because a jury would see the validity of Assange’s public-interest reporting, he said.
‘Poisonous propaganda’
“He’s already faced poisonous propaganda from the American authorities.” [Indeed, there’s evidence the US meant to harm or even kill Assange.]
“As we stand here today, roughly 80,000 US prisoners are in solitary confinement. Julian would almost certainly face the same,” Davis said.
The US said this would not happen to Assange, he said.
At this point, people in the crowd at this week’s crowded meeting on one of the coldest nights in London so far this winter yelled out “liars”.
“Exactly right,” Davis said.
A previous case Davis worked on, two promises were broken “the moment the deportee landed in America. So we can’t trust that either,” he said.
“Justice for Julian Assange rests in our hands…the British justice system alone.” [This statement puzzles me slightly because Davis’s own political party decided to extradite Assange, prompting the need for the appeal next month.]
The effective public-interest defence in Britain
Three official secrets trials over the past half century or so in Britain, juries or prosecutors recognized the public interest of the so-called espionage.
Assange would be walking the streets if only British justice was involved, Davis said. Judges looking at his appeal should consider what is the crime here — publishing secrets that embarrass the US — is that really a crime or a public service? …Davis was asking.
The extradition treaty governing prisoners from the UK to the US was opposed by Davis because it reads like an agreement between “an imperial power and a colony. It was one way and we basically have to do what we were told,” Davis said.
Earlier this month the Bangladesh government regained control of that huge nation after locking up thousands of opposition activists and jailing reporters for writing about food-price rises.
Climate change dramatically worsened last year, questionable wars have broken out based on lies, stoking human rights abuse and enriching billionaires. The gap between rich and poor widened in an accelerated fashion. Even before he was locked up, Assange called out these highly destructive trends …and others.
‘Time of deceit’
Richard Burgon, UK MP for Leeds East (Labour) and chair of the Socialist Campaign Group of MPs, told Thursday’s meeting that the UK had been involved in more unjust wars than it should have been.
He cited George Orwell, who said “In a time of deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act” … [the origins of this notion is contested, by the way].
Assange was locked up,”not because he’s charged with any crime in this country, but because of his journalistic work…because of his work to tell the truth, a truth that the powerful did not want the public to see,” Burgon told the meeting.
Transcript by Otter.ai below (beware of mistakes – favor listening [above] — indeed I’m publishing this below partly to show how bad the translation is …when it comes to audio that does not favor the US)
I’m David Davis
listen to we agree on almost nothing.
This issue is bigger and more important than all of us.
When Jeremy Corbyn gand I went to America to to get to arrange the release of
the last day
year I went to America to arrange the release in the last week and Guantanamo Bay. Somebody said to me in Britain, why are you doing this? This person’s probably a terrorist
Well firstly, no, it’s not. The Secondly, even if he were, he deserves a fair trial. Yeah, no arbitrary incarceration. We say that
for everybody. It doesn’t matter where you come from. It doesn’t matter what your religion is. It doesn’t matter what your politics are. It doesn’t matter what colour you are. It doesn’t matter who origin. Everybody
deserves a fair trial. fair justice, that state the same rights, the same freedoms that all of us have. And that’s what this is about. That’s what this is about tonight. But I want us to face up frankly, to the harsh reality. Let’s be clear. If Julian Assange is extradited to the United States, into the American judicial system, his chances of acquittal will be near zero. This is not really a justice system, as you’re recognising the justice system with a conviction rate of 97% largely achieved by a plea bargaining system, which threatens enormous, enormous sentences. If you don’t comply with Julian’s case, I guess the threat will be 175 year sentence. That’s where and what do you put on trial, he’d be refused bail, thrown into the cell with his access to his counsel, and even to his own evidence, strictly limited, handicapping his ability to defend himself. He’s already faced poisonous propaganda from the American authorities. The trial were preceded by him walking on camera in a prison, overall, arms and legs shackled with the explicit purpose of convincing the public that he’s guilty before the trial even starts. And as from the perspective of treatment, well as as we stand here today, roughly 80,000 American prisoners are in solitary confinement. It’s actually not the US duty we’re almost certainly face the same as the Americans have promised that that would not happen.
fliers Well, exactly
right. The last case I dealt with going to America and all sorts of promises around it, and tools that were broken. The moment that deportee landed in America so we can’t trust that either. You so what that means, what does that mean? It means he’s not going to get a fair trial. So justice for Julian Assange risks in our hands, and our hands are look, British justice system what actually would happen if Julian was accused in Britain of the equivalent to the US Espionage Act, which is our which is our official secrets? What would happen if he was here? We actually have some examples over the last 30 or so years. We’ve had three high profile official secrets, trials, and so we can get a good idea of how they will work. The first one was under Thatcher might recognise it was a simple quote. It was a quote from control of so called Bell growing up.
This man was a civil servant. And he had leaked to the press and he leaked to
the press the fact that the Belgrano was sailing away from Falklands. The British himself was furious with this. And so he put on put in court put on trial for breaking the Official Secrets. And the judge instructed the jury imagine that instructed the jury to find him guilty. I wouldn’t render the explosives they probably thought, but they refused. Oh, they recognise this man was I thought it was technically a breach of the law, but in fact was in the public interest factors in the public interest, and they found him innocent. The next to the next cases where Katherine and Katherine Gomez I think at MI five analyst and Pascall work from the forum and again, they leak information mostly about American activity, extradition and torture. Spying on the United Nations are spying on on foreign heads of state and so on. And they were arrested and charged. But in each case, the prosecution realised that the British jury would actually find them not guilty. Why? Because what they had done was in the public interest again, so whilst in British law, technically, there is no public interest defence, every single time it comes to trial, a British Jewry imposes one that’s actually what would happen if it was in Britain. Julian faced the trial heat and that’s why I think the judges who are ruling on him have to think about what is the reality? What is it that he’s being accused of? And what if he were a British citizen? What
if he weren’t here?
What would he face? What he would face is independent trial, fair trial, you’ll be over by now. And if you’re walking free on the streets of Britain, or home in Australia now we’ve already heard about the the UK us extradition treaty. Richard, quite rightly, I think that I posted I was overruled by environment, certainly for my party, but I posted because I thought it frankly read like the extradition treaty between an imperial power recall, it was one way and we basically have to what was the wasn’t it however, article for which extradition shall not be granted if the offence to which extradition is requested is a political offence? And you know, Parliament only ratified that treaty because that clause was that if I pull up there, I can’t imagine a British power actually accepting entries. So clearly, this is a political offence. Let’s look at what it is. What are the American what are the Americans, the Americans saying? About this when actually, Vice President Biden said, quote, I would argue that he is a high tech terrorist talking about Julian. This guy has done things and put in jeopardy the lines and occupations of people in other parts of the world. He has made it difficult to conduct our business with our allies. And our friends, it is done garbage. But of course, in reality, what is the city that the US State deems a breach of the Espionage Act? We’ve seen? A video the video showing American soldiers gunning down 18 civilians, including a Reuters journalist, the publication of that video, and the publication of US diplomatic cables, showing us espionage against the United Nations and ello world leaders. It is of course ridiculous. To pretend these acts of public interest journalism, on crimes world is public interest journalism, exposing crimes or crimes. Clearly not in any sensible way.
I’m surprised that by 2010, Vice President Biden actually changed his mind. And he publicly conceded that Julian Assange have inflicted no substantive damage other than to be embarrassing. The US government has gone from high tech terrorist to somebody who embarrasses the US. That’s that’s where that’s where they are. So the successful extradition of Julian Assange, but effectively criminalised. investigative journalism is espionage. It would, it would set a legal precedent, allowing the prosecution of anyone anyone who breaks the duty of silence on classified American information and state sponsored. It would impose American censorship on British journalism, and hello world, Joe Biden words to avoid embarrassing the American government. Legality aside and so that’s where we are. That’s what we’re considering today. And that’s what that’s what the British judicial system should be thinking. When I address these issues. In a month’s time. I probably shouldn’t be thinking and legalities aside. I should
never forget
with any of these issues, any issue. You should never forget the human side. Of the human side of the issue. For the last 13 years Julian Assange has undergone a terrible ordeal.
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