US authorities peddling lies about Assange, claims lawyer

A lawyer for Julian Assange yesterday accused the US of “boldly and blatantly” misstating facts about the WikiLeaks founder’s conduct, on the second day of his extradition hearing in Britain.

Assange faces charges under the US Espionage Act for the 2010 release of a trove of secret files detailing aspects of US military campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Washington claims the 48-year-old Australian helped intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning to steal the documents before recklessly exposing confidential sources around the world.

But defence lawyer Mark Summers argued much of the 18-charge US indictment Assange will face if extradited was “provably wrong”, adding elements were “lies, lies and more lies”.

“It’s difficult to conceive of a clearer example of an extradition request that boldly and blatantly misstates the facts as they are known to be to the US government,” he told a packed courtroom in southeast London.

However James Lewis, a lawyer for the US, called the defence’s testimony a “series of misstatements about how the indictment is formulated”. He called the Assange team’s strategy “a “fundamental mischaracterisation of… the allegations”.

Assange spent much of the past decade holed up in Ecuador’s London embassy to avoid separate legal proceedings in Sweden, but Washington is now seeking his transfer to stand trial.

The extradition hearing at Woolwich Crown Court, next to the high-security Belmarsh prison where he is being held, is expected to last five days before reconvening in May.

https://www.gulf-times.com/story/656904/US-authorities-peddling-lies-about-Assange-claims-