Berlin backing Julian Assange against US extradition

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz calls on British judges to rule against extradition of Julian Assange to the US.

Supporters of Julian Assange outside the High Court in London. Picture: Getty Images

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has called on British judges to rule against extradition of Julian Assange to the US, in an unusual intervention in relations between two of his country’s allies.

Assange, 52, is waiting for the High Court’s verdict on whether he can make a final appeal against his removal to the US, where he faces 18 charges relating to the publication of thousands of classified American government documents through his WikiLeaks portal.

Last week, his lawyers told the court the “legally unprecedented prosecution” for alleged espionage and conspiring with computer hackers was politically motivated and he was in danger of a “flagrant denial of justice” if extradited.

The German government in October said it was following the case “attentively” but would not intervene as it respected the ­independence of the British ­judiciary.

The government “has no doubt that the British justice system applies the principles of the rule of law and respects human rights”, it said at the time.

On Monday, however, Mr Scholz publicly sided with Assange’s defence, arguing that the Australian citizen was at risk of “persecution” at the hands of American authorities.

“I’m of the opinion that it would be good if the British courts granted him the necessary protection, since he must indeed face persecution in the US, given the fact he gave away American state secrets,” the Chancellor said during a visit to a vocational training college in Sindelfingen, near Stuttgart.

“During the last hearing, the representatives of the US were unable to persuade the British judges that the potential sentence would happen in a framework that would be reasonable from Britain’s perspective.”

Assange has a sizeable following in Germany and one survey in 2019 found that 63 per cent of German voters opposed his extradition, including a clear majority of those who supported Mr Scholz’s Social Democratic Party (SPD).

Two weeks ago, 75 MPs from the SPD and the Green Party, among them two German government commissioners, published an open letter urging the US to abandon the “show trial” and suggesting Assange be tried before the European Court of Human Rights instead.

They said he was at risk of suicide in “unacceptable British prison conditions” at HMP ­Belmarsh.

They also said a rejection of his appeal would “set a dangerous precedent and mean another severe blow to the state of press freedom in Europe”.

THE TIMES