The Wikileaks writer faces extradition to the US and a 175-year jail sentence if his last attraction fails
Former Fox Information host Tucker Carlson visited Wikileaks founder Julian Assange at London’s Belmarsh Jail on Thursday, Carlson revealed in a submit on X (previously Twitter) later that day.
The American journalist included a photograph of himself strolling with Assange’s spouse, Stella Moris. The submit garnered constructive reactions from activists who’ve collaborated with Wikileaks previously, together with Mega founder Kim Dotcom and former British MP George Galloway.
Whereas Carlson didn’t elaborate on the character of his go to, media commentary instructed it was an interview for Carlson’s well-liked self-titled present on X. He beforehand interviewed Assange’s father and brother for a Fox Information phase in 2021, and once more earlier this yr.
Carlson has condemned Assange’s continued incarceration as a violation of the Wikileaks founder’s First Modification rights, and mentioned it units a disastrous precedent for different journalists and publishers who work with categorised materials.
Assange has appealed his pending extradition to the US, the place he faces as much as 175 years in jail on fees of violating the Espionage Act. The costs stem from Wikileaks’ publication of a trove of secret paperwork leaked by US Military intelligence analyst and whistleblower Chelsea (previously Bradley) Manning in 2010, which handled the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
The Wikileaks writer has been imprisoned in Belmarsh since 2019, when he was expelled from the Ecuadorian embassy in London the place he had lived for seven years. Assange was granted political asylum and later Ecuadorian citizenship, each of which had been revoked forward of his arrest.
Whereas Caroline Kennedy, the US ambassador to Australia, hinted in August that Washington would possibly think about a plea deal permitting Assange to return to his dwelling nation if he pleaded responsible to lesser fees, authorized specialists have identified that any such deal would virtually actually require him to journey to the US for a proper act of contrition – a situation he’s unlikely to simply accept.
Moreover, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has proven no indicators of relenting in pursuit of the writer, not too long ago rejecting overtures from Canberra with the reason that Assange’s actions had “risked very critical hurt to our nationwide safety, to the good thing about our adversaries, and put named human sources at grave danger of bodily hurt, grave danger of detention.”
Members of Congress hailing from each events have petitioned the presidential administration of Joe Biden to drop the extradition request and abandon the prosecution of Assange.
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