(26 Mar 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:

ASSOCIATED PRESS
London, UK - 26 March 2024
1. Wide of news conference
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Stella Assange, wife of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange:
"I find the judgment utterly bizarre. As I said before, my impression is the court is tying itself in knots to find, basically passing the buck to the U.S. government and inviting it to contradict its own case in order to waive through his extradition. But this is par for the course in this case, bizarre decisions by the courts, unpredictable legal proceedings, exceptions."
3. Cutaway of news conference
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Stella Assange, wife of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange:
"Now with this decision, I think the correct question is why don't you drop the case? Julian has been in prison for almost five years. This case serves no purpose other than to intimidate journalists all around the world. Not just here, not just in the United States. It is sending a chilling effect. It is creating not just a legal precedent, but a political precedent that is putting journalists all over the world at risk because it is setting a new normal."
5. Cutaway of news conference
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Kristinn Hrafnsson, WikiLeaks editor-in-chief:
"Why continue this charade, this lawfare against Julian? In two weeks he will have spent five years in Belmarsh prison. Five years. And we still haven't come to a conclusion in this case. The onus now is on the U.S. government. That's where you should be going and ask them, you should drop the case because there's nothing left in it after today's verdict by the judges."
7. Cutaway of news conference
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Jennifer Robinson, Australian human rights lawyer and barrister:
"Now, the judge's decision, of course, is that we get - we've got provisional permission to appeal on three grounds. On the fact that he would not be permitted to rely on the First Amendment. The risk that he be he'd be exposed to the death penalty and the risk that he'll be discriminated against on the grounds that he's Australian. The court has called - for what they want - satisfactory assurances to protect him against that. We say there's no such satisfactory assurance. Amnesty International says that US diplomatic assurances are not worth the paper they're written on. In a case as serious as this, involving the death penalty and involving free speech protections for all journalists everywhere. This is clearly insufficient."
9. Cutaway of news conference
STORYLINE:
The wife of Julian Assange criticized on Tuesday a British court ruling which said the WikiLeaks founder can’t be extradited to the United States on espionage charges unless U.S. authorities guarantee he won't get the death penalty.

“This is par for the course in this case, bizarre decisions by the courts, unpredictable legal proceedings, exceptions," Stella Assange told a news conference after the court’s decision.

The judgment was seen as a partial victory for Assange in his long legal battle over the site's publication of classified American documents.

Two High Court judges said they would grant Assange a new appeal unless U.S. authorities give further assurances within three weeks about what will happen to him.

The ruling means the legal saga, which has dragged on for more than a decade, will continue — and Assange will remain inside London’s high-security Belmarsh Prison, where he has spent the last five years.



The judges said a hearing will be held May 20 if the U.S. makes those submissions.







AP video shot by Kwiyeon Ha



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