2 whislteblower PSAs

(Although Assange is technically not a whistleblower, but a journalist and publisher.)

‘Julian Assange ‘Has Refused to Attend’ Latest Remand Hearing Due to COVID-19 Outbreak at Belmarsh’, sputniknews.com, Nov. 26, 2020

“Julian Assange did not attend his remand hearing on 26 November 2020 because of the severity of the COVID-19 outbreak at Belmarsh prison. “Nothing is happening today”, a lawyer connected to the case told Sputnik in the morning at Westminster Magistrates’ Court, due to the fact that “55 people [in his block] in Belmarsh” have been diagnosed with the novel coronavirus.

Ed Fitzgerald QC, speaking for the defence, explained to Deputy Chief Magistrate Tan Ikram, at the beginning of the remand hearing on Thursday morning, that Mr Assange “waived” his right to attend in person due to the high risk of him contracting COVID-19 if he leaves his cell. The Judge insisted that a prisoner held on remand needed to be produced every 28 days and asked the court clerk whether there had been a message from the prison authorities at Belmarsh. The court officer replied that an email had been received which stated that Mr Assange “has refused to attend” the video link room.

Barrister for the prosecution, Joel Smith, interjected saying that he was acting for the defence in a separate case at Wandsworth and and that “court staff are not producing defendants” who are in blocks that have a viral outbreak. “That’s at Wandsworth” Judge Ikram responded, adding that they were speaking about Belmarsh prison and that “the information I have is that [Mr Assange] has refused [to attend]”.

Mr Fitzgerald told the court that it was not being argued that Mr Assange “could not attend” but that he understood that the award-winning journalist was “staying in his cell for self-protection”. The court has previously heard that Mr Assange is at higher risk of contracting a more severe form of COVID-19 due to a history of respiratory infections.”  […]

“Ultimately, the parties and the court agreed to another remand hearing, scheduled for 11 December 2020 at 10:30, on the basis that since Mr Assange did not attend today’s hearing, the case would have been re-listed “not for 28 days” but rather the “shortest practical period”, according to the judge.”  […]

Final written submissions were filed with the court earlier in November and Judge Baraitser’s decision is scheduled to be handed down on 4 January 2021.”

‘Trump must pardon Snowden & Assange for helping expose ‘deep state,’ says Tulsi Gabbard amid chorus against war on whistleblowers’, 27 Nov, 2020, RT.com

“Since you’re giving pardons to people, please consider pardoning those who, at great personal sacrifice, exposed the deception and criminality of those in the deep state,” Gabbard said in a tweet addressed to the president on Thursday, referring to Snowden and Assange.

@TulsiGabbard

Brave whistleblowers exposing lies & illegal actions in our government must be protected. Join me and urge Congress: Pass my bipartisan legislation (HRes1162, HRes1175, HR8452) calling for charges against @snowden & Assange to be dropped & to reform the Espionage Act.”

Pass it on!

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The Liberal Moonbat's picture

More of a scrawny, otherworldly 'Twas The Night Before Christmas Victorian Santa than a stout, rosy-cheeked Coca-Cola-ad 20th-Century Santa - so much the better, I suppose!

Sincere best wishes to "The Father" of the 21st-Century Holy Trinity, and his family:

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In the Land of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man is declared mentally ill for describing colors.

Yes Virginia, there is a Global Banking Conspiracy!

wendy davis's picture

@The Liberal Moonbat

the past! none of the tweets i'd seen to @theReal mentioned how many docs believe he is so thin, with so many other existing medical conditions, that he's ripe for getting the disease, with the subtext implied: dying from it.

thing is, this really IS a pardon crunch time, as Political Judge Beyotch Baraitser's Extradition decision will be handed down on Jan. 4.

guess all most of us can do is light a candle, say a prayer, that DT pardons him; no way baraitser won't extradite him.

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TheOtherMaven's picture

@wendy davis
He'd "lose face" if he did, since HE was responsible for getting Assange yanked out of the Ecuadorian Embassy in the first place! (Have you all forgotten that?)

Biden WON'T pardon him, for similar reasons.

Harris...? who knows? But don't count on it.

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There is no justice. There can be no peace.

wendy davis's picture

@TheOtherMaven

others, i certainly haven't forgotten, hence the photo at the top.

stella, in particular, seems to be hoping that the current president's heart might grow like the grinch's did upon seeing their children.

biden called him a 'high-tech terrorist', but in any even he wouldn't be in the oval office until jan. 20, too late for baraitser's final gavel. miz incarceration kopmala i doubt has a heart, either.

it's quite a long shot, but right now...it's all julian has, especially given the illegality and corruption of his court case since day one. 'lady arbuthnot' (married to a tory bigwig) should have recused herself, vanessa baratister should have as well, given that arbuthnot mentored her and is watching over 'the proceedings'.

i'm surprised he's still alive, to say the truth. sadly, tragically, you may be right, the other maven.

p.s. on edit: i was trying to remember what lenin moreno's prize was for
calling the london police to 'remove julian', and when i pur the search terms into a bing bar found this:

fancy how pissed and horror-struck rafael correa must have been at what his self-chosen successor had done for his pieces of silver!

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RantingRooster's picture

this whole thing makes me sick to my stomach. They (Assange, Snowden, Manning, and others) all should be pardoned and receive restitution.

As commander and Chief, Trump should be brought up on Article 92 charges (Dereliction in the performance of duties), under the UCMJ (uniform code of military justice), but sadly the office of the president is not under UMCJ jurisdiction, which I reckon is to keep / prevent military coup's from happening all the time here in the US.

This is just absurd! Crazy

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C99, my refuge from an insane world. #ForceTheVote

wendy davis's picture

@RantingRooster

and confess i was more focused on julian than snowden, as per tulsi gabbard's request, mainly because of the sentence that number of espionage charges against him could bring (175 years in supermax)), and that as far as i know, snowden is healthy enough and not in a maximum security prison.

in fact, hadn't russia offered him citizenship? and from the RT.com coverage, Tulsi's request:

"The request comes less than a day after Trump granted a pardon for former national security adviser Michael Flynn. His case became a central plank in the Trump-Russia “collusion” narrative after he was accused of misleading investigators about contacts with a Russian diplomat following Trump’s election win in 2016. While the Justice Department moved to have the case thrown out, citing misconduct in the FBI’s probe, a federal judge resisted that effort, prompting the president to intervene on Wednesday.

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