“Julian Assange must not be extradited to the US, for such an action will shame our country,” argues British writer Peter Hitchens in the Daily Mail, claiming “[t]here is still just time for prominent figures in [British] politics and the media to place themselves on the side of justice and liberty, where they ought always to be.”
Hitchens, 71, has long criticized the imprisonment of Assange, the founder of the non-profit Wikileaks, who has now been in Belmarsh prison since 2019, having previously lived in a room in London’s Ecuadorian embassy for years. Assange is perhaps best known for the release of hundreds of thousands of classified documents pertaining to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
“[I]f Mr Assange is sent to face trial in the US, any British journalist who comes into possession of classified material from the US, though he has committed no crime according to our own law, faces the same danger,” Hitchens explains.
“This is a basic violation of our national sovereignty, and a major threat to our own press freedom. I think that no English court should accept this demand,” he adds.
Earlier this month Assange, who remains imprisoned in London, lost an appeal to the High Court to avoid being extradited and has since appealed again.
