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Assange endangered ‘innocent’ individuals, court told


Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, endangered “innocent” individuals when he disclosed classified material, a lawyer for the US government told a London court on Monday.

James Lewis made the argument at Woolwich Crown Court in south-east London, where Mr Assange is fighting extradition to the US on charges of espionage and computer hacking surrounding the 2010 publication by WikiLeaks of a huge cache of secret documents passed to him by Chelsea Manning, the former US military intelligence analyst.

The trove — which included 90,000 activity reports relating to the war in Afghanistan, 400,000 relating to the Iraq war, and 250,000 US diplomatic cables and other highly sensitive information — was one of the largest leaks of classified material and caused considerable embarrassment to the US government.

Mr Assange also published the documents without redactions, which Washington charged put at risk the lives of a number of people who had helped the US military in Afghanistan and Iraq. Mr Lewis told the court that some sources had disappeared after their names appeared on WikiLeaks’ website, although he admitted that the authorities could not prove that their disappearance was a direct result of the disclosure.

Washington wants Mr Assange to be brought to the US to face one charge of computer hacking and 17 charges of violating the US’s 1917 espionage act, leaving him facing a maximum prison term of 175 years if convicted.

Lawyers for Mr Assange will argue that he was working as a journalist when he obtained and published the leaked material, and that he should be covered by freedom of speech protections under the European Convention on Human Rights. It will also argue that the US’s account of the events leading up to the release of the information is misleading and amounts to abuse of process. 

In his remarks on the first day of the hearing, Mr Lewis told District Judge Vanessa Baraitser that Mr Assange was “no journalist”. He added: “This is made clear by the totality of his behaviour in the indictment. No responsible actor, journalist or otherwise, would purposely publish the names of confidential sources in war zones, exposing them to the gravest danger.” 

He went on to say that the offences in the extradition request all related to obtaining the information or exposing confidential sources in Afghanistan and Iraq, knowing it would expose them to danger, Mr Lewis went on. 

“The disclosure charges are solely where risk of harm was caused,” Mr Lewis said. 

The hearing is not a trial of the facts of the case. The US side has only to show that the alleged offences were crimes in the US and in the UK at the time they were committed. Mr Lewis said the offences would be crimes in England and Wales under the Official Secrets Acts and UK legislation against misuse of computers. 

Mr Assange’s defence team, led by Ed Fitzgerald, were due to outline why they believe his actions would not be offences in England and Wales because of the Human Rights Act.

The case continues.



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