{"id":87131,"date":"2019-04-11T15:00:04","date_gmt":"2019-04-11T22:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=87131"},"modified":"2019-04-11T15:00:04","modified_gmt":"2019-04-11T22:00:04","slug":"assange-arrest-reveals-british-justice-is-just-a-plaything-of-washington","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2019\/04\/11\/assange-arrest-reveals-british-justice-is-just-a-plaything-of-washington\/","title":{"rendered":"Assange arrest reveals British justice is just a \u2018plaything\u2019 of Washington"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Assange<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

US President Donald Trump and Britain’s Prime Minister Theresa May at the G20 summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina last year. \u00a9 Reuters \/ Kevin Lamarque<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The arrest of Julian Assange in London after an extradition request from the US, and the way the WikiLeaks founder was treated by a British judge, made Thursday a shameful day\u201d for UK justice, commentators told RT.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The UK\u2019s legal system is but a plaything of the US legal system. Britain is a vassal of Washington as it\u2019s been confirmed by today\u2019s events,\u201d<\/em> political commentator John Wight said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Earlier in the day, UK police forcibly removed Assange out of the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. The 47-year-old was then delivered to the Westminster Magistrates Court where a judge labeled him a narcissist, who can\u2019t get beyond his own selfish interests\u201d<\/em> and found him guilty of failing to surrender to bail in 2012.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As for Assange\u2019s extradition request by the US, the judge said the American side must produce its case by June 12. Assange is wanted in the US on charges of conspiring with US Army soldier Chelsea Manning, who leaked thousands of classified documents to WikiLeaks back in 2010.ALSO ON RT.COM<\/strong>\u2018Supine MSM\u2019 won\u2019t sound alarm over Assange arrest despite earlier profiting from his work<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Assange will disappear in to the void of the US prison system\u201d if he\u2019s extradited, Wight warned. He advised against trusting the Department of Justice, which insisted that the publisher will get the maximum term of five years if convicted in America.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We have to focus on the precedent, but not the words emanating from the US. And the precedent it that Chelsea Manning was imprisoned for over 35 years for her role in uncovering the crimes of the US military in Iraq and Afghanistan.<\/strong><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Manning was pardoned after serving seven years, but was returned behind bars this March for refusing to testify against WikiLeaks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They\u2019re saying that it\u2019s only five years, but five years in a US prison is unlike five years in any other country\u2019s prison, with few exceptions. It\u2019s a notoriously cruel, barbarous and vindictive system,\u201d<\/em> Wight said.ALSO ON RT.COM<\/strong>Impartial trial? UK judge brands Julian Assange \u2018narcissist\u2019 in courtroom<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The personal characterization of Julian Assange by Judge Michael Snow was highly improper,\u201d<\/em> Mads Andenas, former UN special rapporteur on arbitrary detention, told RT.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The world is following this case\u201d and Snow\u2019s words made people doubt the fairness of the judicial process,\u201d<\/em> he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prime Minister Theresa May announcing Assange\u2019s arrest to the cheers of Parliament was also not the right thing to do in a case where it\u2019s very important for the UK to leave the impression that it\u2019s a judicial process that\u2019s deal with absolutely fairly,\u201d<\/em> the legal expert added.ALSO ON RT.COM<\/strong>\u2018This is about human rights\u2019: Fashion designer Vivienne Westwood slams UK over Assange arrest<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

US President Donald Trump and Britain’s Prime Minister Theresa May at the G20 summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina last year. \u00a9 Reuters \/ Kevin Lamarque The arrest of Julian Assange in London after an extradition request from the US, and the way the WikiLeaks founder was treated by a British judge, made Thursday a shameful […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-87131","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87131"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87131\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}