Julian Assange's lawyers: US files were leaked for political ends

Julian Assange’s legal team has rejected a suggestion by lawyers for US authorities that his actions were not “political offences”, arguing that the WikiLeaks founder had published classified documents to highlight human rights abuses.

On the fourth day of Assange’s extradition hearing in London, before proceedings were adjourned until May, his barrister, Edward Fitzgerald QC, said the motives for publishing confidential information about Guantánamo Bay and the actions of the US military in Iraq and Afghanistan were political.

Assange faces 18 charges in the US of attempted hacking and breaches of the Espionage Act over the publication of classified US cables a decade ago. His defence argues that he should be protected from extradition because the US-UK treaty rules it out for political offences.

(June 1, 2010)

WikiLeaks releases about 470,000 classified military documents concerning American diplomacy and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. It later releases a further tranche of more than 250,000 classified US diplomatic cables.

(November 1, 2010)

A Swedish prosecutor issues a European arrest warrant for Assange over sexual assault allegations involving two Swedish women. Assange denies the claims.

(December 7, 2010)

He turns himself in to police in London and is placed in custody. He is later released on bail and calls the Swedish allegations a smear campaign.

(February 1, 2011)

A British judge rules that Assange can be extradited to Sweden. Assange fears Sweden will hand him over to US authorities who could prosecute him.

(June 19, 2012)

He takes refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy in London. He requests, and is later granted, political asylum.

(November 14, 2016)

Assange is questioned in a two-day interview over the allegations at the Ecuadorian embassy by Swedish authorities.

(January 19, 2017)

WikiLeaks says Assange could travel to the United States to face investigation if his rights are 'guaranteed'. It comes after one of the site's main sources of leaked documents, Chelsea Manning, is given clemency.

(May 19, 2017)

Swedish prosecutors say they have closed their seven-year sex assault investigation into Assange. British police say they would still arrest him if he leaves the embassy as he breached the terms of his bail in 2012.

(January 11, 2018)

Britain refuses Ecuador's request to accord Assange diplomatic status, which would allow him to leave the embassy without being arrested.

(February 13, 2018)

He loses a bid to have his British arrest warrant cancelled on health grounds.

(March 28, 2018)

Ecuador cuts off Assange's internet access alleging he broke an agreement on interfering in other countries' affairs.

(November 16, 2018)

US prosecutors inadvertently disclose the existence of a sealed indictment against Assange.

(April 2, 2019)

Ecuador's President Lenin Moreno says Assange has 'repeatedly violated' the conditions of his asylum at the embassy.

(April 11, 2019)

Police arrest Assange at the embassy on behalf of the US after his asylum was withdrawn. He is charged by the US with 'a federal charge of conspiracy to commit computer intrusion for agreeing to break a password to a classified U.S. government computer.'

(May 1, 2019)

He is jailed for 50 weeks in the UK for breaching his bail conditions back in 2012. An apology letter from Assange is read out in court, but the judge rules that he had engaged in a 'deliberate attempt to evade justice'. On the following day the US extradition proceedings were formally started.

(May 13, 2019)

Swedish prosecutors announce they are reopening an investigation into a rape allegation against Julian Assange.

(June 13, 2019)

Home secretary Sajid Javid reveals he has signed the US extradition order for Assange paving the way for it to be heard in court.

(February 24, 2020)

Assange's extradition hearing begins at Woolwich crown court in south-east London.

After a week of opening arguments, the extradition case is to be adjourned until May, when the two sides will lay out their evidence. The judge is not expected to rule until several months after that, with the losing side likely to appeal. If the courts approve extradition, the British government will have the final say.

James Lewis QC, a barrister for the US authorities, argued earlier on Thursday that Assange’s actions were not inherently political as they did not have the direct purpose of overthrowing the US government or changing US government policy. “Any bare assertion that WikiLeaks was engaged in a struggle with the US government ... needs to be examined far more,” he told Woolwich crown court.

Fitzgerald responded that Assange didn’t only seek to change US government policy, but that he succeeded. “WikiLeaks didn’t just seek to induce change, it did induce change,” he said, referring to the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq.

“What other purpose can there be publishing the Apache helicopter strike [video, showing the killing of 12 people] and [US] rules of engagement than to show that the war was being waged in a way that conflicted with fundamental human rights?

“What other point can there be to releasing the Guantánamo Bay files than to induce a government change of policy? And the same for revealing civilian deaths in the Iraq war – [it] was to induce a change in government policy.’’

Assange is accused of working with the former US army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning to leak hundreds of thousands of classified documents, which the US authorities say put the lives of their informants in danger.

The extradition hearing began on Monday. After an initial week of legal argument, the proceedings were adjourned and will continue with three weeks of evidence scheduled to begin on 18 May.

Assange’s lawyers are expected to call a former employee of a Spanish security company to give evidence. The person claims surveillance was carried out on Assange while he was living in Ecuador’s London embassy, on behalf of the US, and that conversations had turned to potentially kidnapping or poisoning him.

Assange complained on Wednesday that he was unable to communicate with his lawyers from his position in the dock. “I am as much a participant in these proceedings as I am watching Wimbledon,” he said.

Mark Summers QC argued on Thursday that his client should be allowed to sit with his lawyers during May’s hearings. He said that secure docks – in which defendants sit behind bulletproof glass – were a relatively recent phenomenon in English courts and had been criticised for their impact on a fair trial.

During Summers’s submissions, Assange twice stood up to try to communicate with his lawyers, but wasn’t immediately noticed. “That is exactly the problem. You see when I’m worried about something,” he said.

The judge, Vanessa Baraitser, rejected the argument, saying Assange should tell the court if he was struggling to hear. She told Assange it had been clear over the previous few days that he had had no difficulty attracting the attention of his legal team and communicating with them via notes.

Assange has been on remand in Belmarsh prison since last September after serving a 50-week jail sentence for breaching his bail conditions by taking refuge in Ecuador’s London embassy in 2012. He did so to avoid extradition to Sweden over sexual assault allegations.