British taxpayers footed £300,000 invoice SO FAR for court docket prices in Julian Assange’s extradition saga – stories

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The UK authorities has reportedly spent greater than £300,000 in public funds on legal professionals and different prices to extradite jailed WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to the US.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) spent £150,000 ($ 205,100) on retaining barristers for Assange’s extradition listening to in January. It spent one other £22,000 ($ 30,000) on professional witnesses and an extra £5,000 ($ 6,800) on transcripts, in accordance with a report by investigative information outlet Declassified UK, which cited paperwork obtained via Freedom of Info requests.

On the January listening to, District Choose Vanessa Baraitser cited considerations about Assange’s well being and psychological well-being to dam Washington’s extradition request. Nonetheless, the US authorities acquired ‘restricted permission’ in July to problem the court docket ruling.

Based on Declassified, the overall prices of the courts, prosecutors and jail used for Assange’s extradition case has been estimated at £317,000 ($ 433,500).

Beneath the 2003 US-UK Extradition Treaty, Washington doesn’t should foot the invoice for any prices concerned in extraditing somebody from UK soil. It’s only required to pay for the transatlantic flight and the “translation of extradition paperwork.”

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FILE PHOTO: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange makes a speech from the balcony of the Ecuadorian Embassy, in central London, Britain February 5, 2016.
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The outlet famous that the CPS had additionally spent public funds arguing in opposition to granting Assange bail. The prices “don’t embrace the appreciable time spent by the company’s in-house legal professionals, paralegals and admin workers,” it added.

Assange was arrested in April 2019 by London authorities, allegedly for breaching his bail circumstances in 2012. For the reason that January determination to dam his extradition, there have been rising requires his launch with many arguing that there isn’t any longer enough motive to maintain him at London’s Belmarsh jail, the place he has been incarcerated for greater than two years.

Based on UK Ministry of Justice figures cited by the outlet, housing a prisoner at Belmarsh – a most safety website sometimes reserved for violent criminals – prices a minimum of £58,000 per 12 months. Different important case-related spending probably consists of some £23,000 ($ 31,000) going in the direction of paying District Choose Baraitser and her clerks to sit down via 4 weeks of court docket hearings in 2020.

An enchantment of Baraitser’s determination by the general public prosecution physique, which acts on behalf of the US Division of Justice (DoJ) in transatlantic extradition instances, is anticipated to succeed in the Excessive Courtroom in London subsequent month.

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The DoJ has charged the Australian journalist beneath the US Espionage Act, accusing Assange of getting leaked categorized data in 2010 that detailed alleged battle crimes perpetrated by the US army. If extradited and located responsible, Assange faces as much as 175 years behind bars at a federal super-max penitentiary.

Earlier this 12 months, stories emerged key witness for the US authorities had admitted to fabricating incriminating testimony in opposition to Assange in trade for immunity from prosecution.

On Monday, the British authorities instructed the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) that it was dedicated to ending the follow of arbitrary detention – stating that this can be a “hallmark of authoritarian regimes” and used as a “device of political intimidation” that “violates human rights”.

Quite a lot of social media customers, together with WikiLeaks and the Defend Assange Marketing campaign, have been fast to level out the “hypocrisy” because the WGAD declared in 2015 that Assange was being “arbitrarily detained” by the UK and was “entitled to his freedom of motion and to compensation.”

A CPS spokesperson instructed Declassified UK, nevertheless, that it had a “authorized obligation to help, advise and conduct all extradition proceedings on behalf of overseas authorities.”

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