It looks like the legal team behind Julian Assange is finally on track to see him released.
At a National Press Club address given by Assange’s wife Stella and lawyer Jennifer Robinson last week, it emerged that a plea bargain is an “option” being seriously considered at long last.
One can only presume it took Assange’s celebrity lawyers about 10 minutes to work out that they couldn’t win in court, and hence why they began an extraordinary and problematic campaign based on (flawed) arguments about press freedom and political persecution.
If the US had broad whistleblower laws, Assange and Chelsea Manning would arguably have escaped prosecution.
However, in Assange’s case, it’s complicated by the reasonable expectation that any whistleblower laws would be subject to a public interest test.
Releasing vision of helicopter gunships allegedly shooting at non-combatants would certainly pass the test, but what about the bulk leaking of 100’s of thousands of uncorroborated files containing sensitive, possibly life-threatening, material?
In the end, though, the Assange case arguably comes down to a single question. Did he help, or attempt to help, the theft of classified US military material?
If he did, then he broke a law that exists in every country on the planet, including Australia. That’s the legal conundrum that his lawyers have attempted to skirt.
If he did “aid and abet” Manning then it makes sense for him to do a plea bargain and end his misery. He’s already spent more time incarcerated than Manning, who was found guilty, imprisoned and then released by way of commutation.
Also at the press club came further demands that the Australian government help in the fight for Assange’s release. It would presumably help Anthony Albanese and Penny Wong if they had something to bargain with in their diplomatic negotiations over the matter.
It might appear a tad hypocritical for our government to demand another country abandon a criminal action of the kind we’d invariably launch under similar conditions.
The Assange case is not fundamentally about press freedom. No media outlets have been prosecuted for publishing the stolen files, not even WikiLeaks.
In the 1971 “Pentagon Papers” case — which saw the New York Times sue the US government — the Supreme Court ruled that the government cannot override the provisions of the ‘First Amendment’.
The only substantive argument remaining open is the claim that he wasn’t in America at the time of the alleged actions and therefore the US government has no right to prosecute Assange.
So far that argument has not received much support from either the UK or the Australian governments.
The advent of the Internet has raised myriad issues that highlight historical weaknesses in criminal law.
Most of the computer hacking and the deluge of phone and Internet scams we are hearing about every day are initiated offshore. In time there will need to be a review of the existing extradition laws — presumably, this will shut the door on the “I wasn’t even in the country” defence.
First, though, we need to enact broad whistleblower laws that include protections for lawyers, journalists and even crusading computer hackers who help expose wrongdoing.
:
