Assange ‘indiscriminately’ named sources and encouraged hacking, US lawyers tell court

London: Julian Assange’s decision to publish unredacted classified military and diplomatic documents put the lives of innocent people in war zones or living under repressive regimes at risk, a British court has heard.

The WikiLeaks founder could be extradited to the United States within days to face prosecution on espionage charges relating to the publication of thousands of classified military and diplomatic documents concerning the Afghanistan and Iraq wars.

Stella Assange, wife of Julian Assange, starts a march to Downing Street with protesters at the end of a two-day hearing at the Royal Courts of Justice in London.Credit: AP

After two days of legal arguments, judges at the High Court in London will now consider whether to grant him permission to appeal against his removal from the UK, with the court advising there would be no ruling on the appeal before March 5.

Lawyers for the US government told the court on Wednesday that the 52-year-old Australian named sources and encouraged theft and hacking, and they disputed his legal team’s assertion that he was being persecuted because of personal politics.

Clair Dobbin KC told the court the prosecution was “based upon the rule of law and evidence” and in his effort to solicit, steal and indiscriminately publish classified US documents Assange had put innocent lives at risk.

“The appellant’s prosecution might be unprecedented but what he did was unprecedented,” she said.

She told the court there were people “who had to leave their homes, flee their homelands because they had been identified in the state diplomatic cables”. She said those affected included individuals in Ethiopia, China, Iran and Syria.

“The material that [Assange] published unredacted attracts no public interest whatsoever,” she said. “That’s the weakness at the centre of the appellant’s case.”

Dobbin sought to rebut the arguments made by the WikiLeaks founder’s counsel the day before, when they claimed the US was seeking politically motivated retaliation for his exposure of state criminality, including torture, rendition and extrajudicial killings.

She said Assange, who was not well enough to attend court for a second day, had not merely published material but had conspired with and aided and abetted US Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning in stealing and disclosing classified information. He is also alleged to have sought to recruit other hackers and leakers of classified information.

Assange is supported by journalist organisations including Australia’s Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance, Reporters Without Borders and the National Union of Journalists in Britain, and his lawyers described his prosecution as unprecedented and a threat to press freedom.

But Dobbin said Assange “knowingly and indiscriminately published to the world the names of individuals who acted as sources of information to the United States”. She said that was a core fact which distinguished the position of Assange from “The New York Times and other media outlets”.

“It is this which forms the objective basis for his prosecution. It is these facts which distinguish him, not his political opinions,” she said.

Dobbin said that in encouraging Manning and others to hack into government computers and steal from them, Assange was “going a very considerable way beyond” a journalist gathering information.

He was “not someone who has just set up an online box to which people can provide classified information,” she said. “The allegations are that he sought to encourage theft and hacking that would benefit WikiLeaks.”

Assange, who founded WikiLeaks in 2006, has been held in London’s high security Belmarsh Prison for almost five years while US authorities seek to extradite him to face trial on espionage charges. His website claims to have published more than 10 million classified files, including official reports on corruption, spying and civilian deaths.

In 2019, the US Department of Justice described the leaks as “one of the largest compromises of classified information in the history of the United States”. He was charged with 18 offences under the Espionage Act of 1917 and extradition proceedings were brought against him in the US.

Dobbin told the court the fact the Biden administration was committed to Assange’s prosecution when the charges were laid under the Trump administration was evidence it was not political.

On Tuesday, Assange’s counsel Mark Summers KC argued the publication of unredacted cables was inadvertent but that, even if it were deliberate, the public interest could have outweighed the naming of individuals. He also said that no harm to any of the named individuals had been proven.

Assange’s lawyers say he could be given a sentence of up to 175 years, but it is likely to be up to 40 years. US prosecutors have said it would be no more than 63 months. US authorities have said that if they agree to extradite Assange, he could serve any US prison sentence he received in Australia.

If Assange wins this case, a full appeal hearing will be held but if loses, his only remaining option would be at the European Court of Human Rights. His wife Stella Assange has said his lawyers would apply to the European judges for an emergency injunction if necessary.

with agencies

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