When the American public go to the polls on November 3 to elect a US president, the outcome will probably also decide if Australian Julian Assange goes free, or spends the rest of his life in Leavenworth prison.
Assange is the publisher of a news letter called Wikileaks and he persuaded a US soldier processing data to make copies of secret documents detailing the killing of innocent civilians during military operations and which was covered up. This revelation embarrassed the USA government and the soldier - Bradley Manning - was sentenced to thirty five years in prison. While in prison Manning had a sex change operation and the sentence was commuted by President Barak Obama and Chelsea Manning is now a free woman.
Julian Assange travelled the world and while in Sweden there was a dubious charge of rape. A judge decided he should be brought to Sweden to face the charge and he was arrested in London and threatened with deportation. He feared the Americans would deport him from Sweden and fought the order, and when his appeal failed he skipped bail and found sanctuary in the London Ecuadorean embassy.
That embassy siege made Assange a world news item. The British lined the embassy with uniformed police and Assange regularly held news conferences from a tiny balcony just an arms length away from his pursuers. That standoff lasted from 2012 to 2019 when his mental health deteriorated to the point the Ecuadoreans had Assange evicted.
The British held him on that breach of bail matter and he has since been held in Belmarsh prison while a US extradition hearing is processed in a London court. This Assange prosecution is being instigated by US president Donald Trump and Assange has world support for his stance. He is seen as a hero by many and in London crowds demonstrate outside the court demanding he be released. His deportation to America is seen as a freedom of the press issue.
This Wikileaks case is divisive in US politics. That Swedish rape charge has long been dismissed and holding Assange indefinitely on that skipped bail matter lacks credibility. Now the judge hearing the deportation matter has indicated that she will not deliver her verdict until the new year, long after the outcome of the US presidential election is known.
It is very clear that the outcome of the US presidential election will decide Julian Assange's fate. If Trump is elected for another four year term he will be relentless in pursuing that deportation and trial in America. If Biden wins he will probably follow the Barak Obama move that freed Chelsea Manning and quietly abandon that deportation order.
The prosecution of Julian Assange is now mired in US politics. It is a fundamental issue between the Republican party to the right and the Democrats with left leanings, and we can be sure that Julian Assange will be following that election result from his cell in Belmarsh prison with more than passing interest !
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