Australian govt must assist Assange: QC

James Riley
Thursday, 03 November 2011 08:02

IT People - People

The Australian Government is now duty bound to assist WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to ensure he gets a fair trial on rape allegations in Sweden, according to his advising counsel and international human rights lawyer Geoffrey Robertson.

Mr Assange, an Australian citizen, last night lost his appeal in the High Court in London against extradition to Sweden. Mr Assange was arrested in December last year after allegations were made by two Swedish women, and a lower court ruled he should be extradited.

He has since then been held in Britain under strict bail conditions, including having an evening curfew and wearing an electronic ankle bracelet.

Mr Robertson last night told the ABC's Lateline progam the Assange team would seek leave to appeal to the Supreme Court in the next 14 days. While he believed there were strong technical points that could be argued, if Mr Assange is not granted leave to appeal to the Supreme Court, Mr Robertson said "he may be patting reindeers by Christmas."

Mr Robertson said there were "a raft of problems that (Assange) might face in Sweden and that the Australian Government might have to do something about," including the conditions under which he would be detained at Gothenburg Prison, and the fact that a trial would be conducted in secret.

"(There are) problems that he's going to face and that I think Canberra may have to do something about," Mr Robertson told ABC's Lateline. "It's got a duty to help Australians in peril in foreign courts. It didn't do anything for David Hicks and that was something of a disgrace."

"But, as far as Julian Assange is concerned, Sweden doesn't have bail, doesn't have money bail for foreigners, so he's likely to be held in custody. He is likely to be held in Gothenburg Prison, which has been criticised, condemned by the European Commission against Torture for the way it treats its foreign prisoners," he said.

"I think more importantly, he's going to be tried in secret, and this is outrageous by our standards and by any standards. It'll be secret justice. They hold rape trials customarily in secret."

Mr Robertson said with the increased likelihood now that Mr Assange could be extradited to Sweden, the Australian Government should also be looking at the risk he will be further extradited to the United States over WikiLeaks activities through a bi-lateral Sweden-US agreement.

He pointed to a Grand Jury proceeding in the US, and highly prejudicial comments made by high profile politicians and commentators about WikiLeaks and Mr Assange as being a huge concern.

"American prosecutors have a saying that a grand jury would indict a ham sandwich. But they've had no evidence that Assange was in any different position to the New York Times or the Guardian. He was a publisher of material that he didn't solicit," Mr Robertson said.

Greens communications spokesman Senator Scott Ludlam yesterday tried unsuccessfully to move a motion calling on the Australian Government to provice Assange with all consular and legal support at it disposal. The motion was defeated when the Coalition voted with Government against it.

"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," Senator Ludlam said.

"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," he said.

"The Australian Federal Police have investigated WikiLeaks and found Mr Assange has broken no Australian laws, and he has yet to be charged with an offence in Sweden or the USA. The Government owes him every effort to ensure his rights as a citizen of this country are protected."