Assange being thrown to wolves: Greens

James Riley
Wednesday, 02 November 2011 16:29

IT People - People

The federal Opposition has voted with Labor in the Senate to defeat a Greens motion that sought to force Government to intervene in legal proceedings against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, to ensure he is not subject to extradition to the US.

The High Court in London is set to rule tonight whether Mr Assange should be forceably sent to Sweden to answer questions related to rape allegations. The decision is expected at 8.45pm. Supporters of Mr Assange have argued the Swedish application for extradition was set in motion simply to allow the WikiLeaks founder to be further extradited to the US under a US-Sweden bilateral agreement.

Mr Assange, an Australian citizen, has consistently denied the allegations, saying they are politically motivated and fueled by opponents of WikiLeaks' whistle-blower activities.

Western Australian Greens Senator Scott Ludlam moved a motion in anticipation of the High Court ruling that called on the government to ensure that the consular and legal rights of all Australian citizens overseas are fully protected, and to intervene if it appeared likely Mr Assange would be further extradited from Sweden to the US to answer espionage-related charges connected to WikiLeaks activities.

The Ludlam motion was rejected in the Senate 33 votes to 9, with the Opposition voting with Government. In voting against the motion, Senator Ludlam accused the major parties of throwing "Assange to the wolves."

"If Mr Assange is sent to Sweden for questioning on alleged offences unrelated to the work of WikiLeaks, the Australian Government should ensure he is not then shuttled to the United States to face concocted political charges under the draconian, First World War-era Espionage Act, aimed at destroying the whistle-blowing website," Senator Ludlam said.

It is understood the Attorney-General Robert McClelland's office - and shadow attorney-general George Brandis - had found Ludlam's motion would have been impossible to enforce and likely illegal.

It is thought major parties objected to the phrase  "If extradited to Sweden for questioning, Mr. Assange not be subject to further extradition from Sweden to the USA under a bilateral agreement to which Australia is not party" as being outside of the Australian Government's purview.

Senator Ludlam says the motion called only for normal legal, consular and diplomatic assistance be provided to Mr Assange and that he was "astounded" that it required a division - let alone was defeated.

He argues the Swedish application for extradition of Mr Assange from Britain was itself unusual and outside of normal legal process and that Government should be making efforts now - in the event that the extradition order is upheld - to ensure that there is no way that Mr Assange could then be estradited to the United States on unspecified charges.

"The Swedish have a mutual assistance agreement with the United Kingdom that they could have sought whatever information they wanted without going first to an extradition order," Senator Ludlam told iTWire.

"So there's the first question, whether Australia made any representations on behalf of Mr Assange as to why they were circumventing the normal legal due process."

"Some of these arguments have not been tested. To us it looks like Government should be taking all available measures to ensure that due process is followed. I think you could make a case ... that there are extreme political concerns here and that the US Government is certainly working through legal and diplomatic channels to try and extradite this gentleman who has not yet been accused of any crime (in the US.)

"And it doesn't appear that normal legal challenges (from Australia), or normal diplomatic challenges for that matter, are being followed. That to me appears extremely suspect.

Senator Ludlam said the Australian Federal Police had investigated WikiLeaks and found Mr Assange had not broken any Australian laws, and that he had not yet been charged with an offence in either Sweden or the USA.

"The Government owes him every effort to ensure his rights as a citizen of this country are protected.

"The US Government has been embarrassed by a number of revelations made public by WikiLeaks - including evidence of American soldiers in Iraq deliberately targeting civilians and journalists. Washington has successfully pressured companies including Visa, Mastercard, PayPal and Western Union to block donations to WikiLeaks to strangle the site - despite the donations funding perfectly legal activity. As editor-in-chief of the site, Mr Assange is clearly a target."