Images from the tensts area outside Woolwich Crown Court on Tuesday February 25th followed by an interview with Irishman Jim Curran, who's been a long time advocate for Assange. We talk at the gate of Woolwich Crown Court when on Tuesday we're joined by Kristinn Hrafnsson of Wikileaks, who was let back into court after having been kicked out earlier. On Wednesdaymorning Tom from Australia who's managing the campsite gets greeted by Assange’s dad, John Shipton.

I leave for the airport to catch my flight, via the Tower of London where I record a summary of this report. full report: https://potkaars.nl/assange

Assange Case calendar:

25 March: Assange call-in by video, Westminster Magistrates Court
7 April: Case management hearing including anonymity issue of 2 witnesses, Woolwich Crown Court
18 May-5 June: next extradition hearing with evidence, Woolwich Crown Court

On Thursday I wrote an article in Dutch about this report. It is here (Dutch, 15min. longread) and here (Dutch, 6min. shortread)

English translation of longread below:

The extradition of Julian Assange to the United States

This week was the first week of the London court case over the extradition of Julian Assange to the United States. If he is extradited, he could face a sentence to a prison of up to 175 years.

The US wants him as a spy and states that with his publications he has put American lives at risk and they claim he helped whistleblower Chelsea Manning break into a computer. Assange in 2010 published on American war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan. If he is extradited, we’re in the situation that a publicist who told about war crimes is extradited to the country that committed them. That makes this a loaded process and the first of its kind. With Assange, freedom of the press is brought before a judge because the United States has stated it does not consider the right to freedom of expression (first amendment rights) applicable to Assange. Also because an indictment under US espionage denies him the right to make a public interest defense.

I went to London to find an answer to three questions.

· how does the Dutch press report on this trial?

· does Assange get a fair trial?

· how does someone defend themselves in this situation?

In 2010, Assange with WikiLeaks published about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. This lawsuit is specifically about those publications, the extradition request is not about the other WikiLeaks publications. The US extradition request to the UK, was made early 2019.

This extradition lawsuit is the conclusion of a trial that started in 2012 after Sweden started an investigation into Assange. In Sweden he had had unprotected sex with two women. When they later asked at the police station about possibilities for him to undergo an HIV test, the Swedish tabloid press wrote about it as if it were a rape case. Assange read that and went to the police station to explain what was had happened and to make a statement. Only when he left Sweden a while later for an appointment in London, an investigation into the case was started in Sweden. That investigation was the reason for Great Britain to put Assange under house arrest and he has been detained ever since.

Assange was under house arrest for an investigation in Sweden. He suspected intent in a collusion between Sweden, Great Britain and the United States to extradite him to the United States via Sweden. He broke his house arrest and fled to the embassy of Ecuador in London. He applied for and received political asylum. From the moment he sought asylum, there was English police surveillance at the door of that embassy 24 hours a day. He later even got Ecuadorian citizenship, but could not leave the embassy without being arrested. A rapporteur from the United Nations would later call that arbitrary detention.

In April 2019 under a new president, Ecuador took away his citizenship again. Ecuador then let the English police into the embassy and extradited Assange to Great Britain. He was taken to judge that was sitting ready and that sentenced him for breaking his house arrest in 2012. He has since been imprisoned in isolation under the harshest prison regime in England. A United Nations rapporteur visited him there and found that Assange shows all the symptoms of someone who has been tortured for a long time. He substantiated that this torture was done in a conspiracy between Ecuador, the United States, Sweden and Great Britain, given that Assange had been detained in "arbitrary detention" for the previous 9 years. First under house arrest and then in that embassy.

Arbitrary detention and torture are against the agreements within the United Nations and treaties that have also been signed by these countries. Part of these treaties is that such rapporteurs check whether countries adhere to the agreements, but at the same time part of those treaties is that there is no sanction for non-compliance with the agreements.

After serving his sentence for breaking his house arrest, Assange remained imprisoned in isolation because the United States had by then requested for his extradition. The indictment was that of espionage and hacking.

The court where the extradition lawsuit is held is called Woolwich Crown Court. It’s an hour away from central London. The building is right next to the Belmarsh prison where Assange is held. Sunday afternoon on my way to my Bed and Breakfast, I walked right past it.

There is a large fence around the complex, where "set Assange free" banners were hung and there were a few tents of demonstrators at the entrance. A little further on there is a second gate with a barrier before the courtyard and then there is the front door of the courthouse. On the grounds of the prison, a press conference was given by Julian Assange's father; John Shipton. He was there together with Yanis Varoufakis, the former finance minister of Greece who stands up for Assange.

Varoufakis says "We have just visited Assange for two hours. He is doing reasonably well. Because we made this visit, Julian was not allowed to "air" that day and he has had hardly any time to consult with his lawyers. He has been in isolation for 22 hours a day for a year and has therefore hardly been able to prepare for the trial." Varoufakis says that he is nevertheless hopeful that extradition can be prevented. Though I hear him say it, I don't believe him.

There were no larger media journalists at that press conference. Reporters without borders and a number of activist-journalists were there. And some people with banners that camped in the tents in front of the court. I proceed to my Bed and Breakfast for my interview with Lisa Ling. Lisa is the whistleblower of the American Drone program (those unmanned armed planes that the US uses in its wars, such as in Iraq).

Lisa talks about that term non-state hostile intelligence actor, that was invented for WikiLeaks and Julian Assange at the time. According to the same definition, that term today ought apply to companies such as Facebook and Cambridge Analytica, who have so much influence that they affect our elections. Why aren't we talking about that? "

On Monday morning at eight o'clock there’s already quite a few demonstrators in front of the outer gate at the courthouse. I have a chat with the guard. He explains: "Journalists and visitors to the trial are already waiting in line to get into court. There is room for around a hundred people inside. A few in the courtroom itself and the rest in a second room with sound and images from the courtroom. Whoever comes first has the best chance of being let in, but protesters must stay outside the outer gate."

Then Julian Assange's father arrives. Present activists greet him and walk past the guard, who allows it and so we walk past the first gate.

A hurdle has been taken.

Only journalists can go past that second gate with the barrier. I say that I am a journalist and I am let through.

Some hundred people are in line on the square in front of the entrance to the court building. Investigative journalist Stefania Maurizi of the big Italian newsoutlet Repubblica has established through FOIA requests that Great Britain had deleted documents in the Assange’s case and has investigated how the public prosecutor of Great Britain has given instructions to the public prosecutor in Sweden. She tweets that morning that she has been in line since a quarter to six already. A hearing like this should be public, but it is not. It is very difficult to get in, even for Maurizi.

I see someone walking I know; MEP from the Czech Republic: Markéta Gregorová. She is there as an international observer. We agree to meet after court, but for now she is in a hurry, because European Members of Parliament and observers from the Italian and German parliament must also queue, otherwise they will not get in. There are no Dutch MPs present.

In the evening she explains how it all went down: "Once inside, I had lost my group of observers. They were led to another room. I asked a security guard where I should go for the Assange case? He said "courtroom two." I went there and I could just go inside. Through text messages from my delegation leader I heard that I was in the right place. Only later did it become clear that it was not intended for international observers to be in the courtroom itself. No one spoke to me about it so I was present at the first part of the session."

Court is in session, Assange behind plexiglas. The sound system is not functioning and even in the room, Markéta can barely understand the judge. Assange from behind his plexiglas does not hear anything of it. In the extra space for the other international observers it is even worse because they have to make do with poor video images without sound, because the microphone system does not work. In the room where the observers are placed, it is filthy warm, busy and unventilated.

In the meantime, the French have arrived outside. The "yellow jackets". Around one hundred and fifty demonstrators sing with megaphones and hit the fences with sticks. They do that all day long! Hour after hour. Then they go home again. What a statement from the French! It is now very busy outside the barriers. The guard of that pleasant chat in the morning looks a bit less pleasant now and has crush barriers installed. It is starting to rain and it is very cold. The wind is too strong for umbrellas, but the French and the other demonstrators understand it. When I understood it too, I sang along and hit the fences: that sound carries into the courtroom! Assange thanked them for it, but the judge asked if someone could tell people outside that it is hindering the lawsuit. It doesn't matter. The protest outside is not only against the extradition of Assange, it is against how Assange has been handled in the last ten years. The protest and noise continue until the courtsession ends.

The people who came to London from all over the world to demonstrate in London appear to be in a state of cognitive dissonance. Just like Varoufakis, they want to believe that justice will prevail inside the building. At the same time, they understand that the chance of this is really nonexistent after everything that happened with Assange in the past ten years. Their noise is that statement "we don't recognize this process." Tom from Australia, who has organized the tent camp, says "the people here understand that it is fixed, but we still have to do everything well and document it well. What happens here sets a historical precedent regardless of the outcome."

After the first day of sessions, Assange's father comes out the building and looks visibly relieved. He first chats with a few people with yellow vests on and says "they were lying all the time", meaning the American lawyers. Markéta would later say "they contradicted themselves and they were wrong."

On the first court day, it was mainly the Americans who go to present their case and on Tuesday it is the turn of the defense. On Tuesday evening the former British ambassador Craig Murray would say "the journalists from the major media were only there on the Monday, they were not there on Tuesday. They reported on the story of the United States but not on the story of Assange."

On Monday afternoon somewhere between the cameras on the square in front of the court building, I am approached by someone asking me what media I actually work for? I say that I am self-employed. The lady had a list with all the press present. I'm not on it but I had been looking for who of the Dutch press is actually here? She shows that from the Netherlands only the NOS is on her list. Via Twitter I learn that had to be their foreign correspondent Tim de Wit. But Tim was not at that Varoufakis press conference on Sunday and he was not there either, at the press conference Monday after the end of the first session. He later said because he had to report on the radio at the time.

I asked Tim if I could interview him, but he had no time for that. Maybe later by telephone? Tim said in a text message that the rest of the week he had no time for this case anyway because he was going to report on Brexit. But isn't Brexit finished yet? Is the story of this lawsuit less important than the aftermath of Brexit?

From my Bed and Breakfast I then interview the American whistleblower John Kiriakou. He worked for the CIA in Iraq at the time of the Iraq war that Julian Assange published about. He said that everyone knew back then already that there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Also the American congress and the allies. Nevertheless, that war started under those false pretenses. Tens of thousands of people died in that war, but none as a result of the publications by WikiLeaks. Kiriakou says that in Washington where he lives, protest demonstrations are held every day for Julian this week.

The National Security Agency whistleblower Thomas Drake (who told us about NSA abuse in the US a few years before Edward Snowden did) later says on Twitter how this Assange case looks exactly like what had happened to him when he blew the whistle in 2010 on the NSA programs: 'I have huge flashbacks now that I see how the Assange extradition case is progressing. They also said that I would have stolen secrets and had the blood of American soldiers on my hands."

In the courtroom of the extradition case, the American lawyers say that the extradition of Assange should be seen as a regular criminal case and not as a political trial. They claim that Assange has put Americans at risk by putting all his information on the internet in 2010. In the following day's defense, Assange's lawyers say that at the time, more than twenty percent of the information was not published in order not to endanger people.

On Tuesday morning it is quieter in front of the barriers. A handful of demonstrators stand along the access road where they call attention to the motorists passing by singing and with signs and banners. A little further on is Hans, from Norway. He has also gotten a demonstration board and sings softly along.

Two types of activists came to this trial. People like those noisy French and people like Hans, too modest to sing loudly. He bravely holds his plate and has an idea! Moments later there are signs along the road that call on motorists to honk for Assange and they do so for the rest of the day.

The rules before the gate have changed. I am no longer allowed on the courtyard between the real journalists because I don't have a "card". I am at the tent site outside the fence when WikiLeaks editor Kristinn Hrafnsson exits the courtbuilding. We talk through the fence. He was evicted from court, but doesn't know why. There was a fuss about this on twitter and Assange's father also went outside. Then Hrafnsson could go back to court. I ask him through the gate if he knows why? 'No. They did apologize but I have no doubt that the strong response and retweets made them let me in again."

I asked Hrafnsson how the second day of the trial went along? "The mountain of evidence presented by the defense against US points is overwhelming and we are only on the second day! In a world where facts and compliance with the law would still matter, I would not worry. If this were a court case before a jury, it would be over by now because of the overwhelming amount of evidence presented here by the Assange defense. But I have been a journalist for thirty years and I have never experienced that concerned citizens, the public, have even been removed from the gates of the court. Not just outside the building but outside the gates. They demanded "cards" from the public. You won't get in without a "card." What kind of world is this? Where do you get such a "card?"

Hrafnsson continues: "the judge must take into account that the information that is in the public domain, which is available to everyone, is contrary to what the Americans are now saying in the court case. The judge is deliberately lied to and that is something that the judge should consider ". He says that Assange was "strip-searched" twice between the first and second session. But Julian is not a criminal! An extradition request is pending against him, but he is humiliated. He was handcuffed eleven times and moved between five different cells after he left the court on Monday after the hearing. And as soon as he was back in prison, the documents that his lawyers gave him, confidential documents, were taken from him. Surely that must all be a violation of how justice should go and as laid down in human rights treaties?"

There’s a break in court and former British ambassador Craig Murray walks towards the fence. He says "one of Assange's lawyers was going back to Spain for another appointment and so he left at the end of the first session. Assange stood up to shake his hand but was physically restrained to prevent him from shaking his own lawyers hand. This is all intimidation. And why am I talking to you through a fence? It is only to intimidate".

In the evening an event titled "imperialism on trial - free Julian Assange" was organized in a church on the other side of London. Russia Today broadcast it live. Their cameras and journalists appear to have been the only ones from the press. At opening, RT is thanked for that and the presenter says: "faith and trust are what connects us here. It's in a church. An appropriate place."

On Twitter I had offered Dutch NPO radio1 to also report like Tim de Wit, but I have not heard from them. In the evening I am interviewed by the podcast of "Anonymous Bites Back" and at night I interview John McAfee (him of the antivirus software). McAfee decided a few years ago to stop paying taxes and has since been on the run. He says "they have Assange now, there is no hope for Assange. The system is broken."

On Wednesday morning at seven o'clock a group of guards stand in front of the gate of the courthouse. It’s cold. A timetable has been made and now it is their turn at the gate but there are no protesters to stop. Already before eight o'clock people arrived, waiting in line in front of the barrier hoping to be let in. Craig Murray is already inside by then and people who were on the press stand the previous days no longer have to queue.

They apparently have a "card". Then one of Assange’s lawyers arrives. The protesters call on him encouragingly. Moments later there’s the US lawyers. They look like what we used to call yuppies. I thought they’d be older.

I am chatting with Tom from the tent camp again who says how cold it was at night and that they had not slept much. Then John Shipton, the father of Assange, arrives. He gives Tom a hug and asks "did you rest well?" Tom says yes.

I have found the answers I was looking for. Assange's defense against this extradition to the US is conducted just as much outside the fence as inside the courtroom. That is how you defend yourself. With yellow vests from France, demonstrators from all over the world such as Hans and observers like Markéta Gregorová from the European Parliament. They’re just as important as the defense by the Assange lawyers is.

I have also seen how it is sometimes that big stories in the world do not appear on the Dutch NOS news or in our newspapers. It is because the journalist responsible for making that story only goes there on the day the US prosecutor speaks. The reason it's not in the media in the Netherlands is because those media don't send a journalist there. Eight thousand journalists are members of the Dutch Association of Journalists. None were there.

When asked if Assange would get a fair trial, Yanis Varoufakis gave the best answer on Sunday.

Let's hope so.

The extradition case will be continued in May.

Here’s Stefania Maurizi’s report on the week

London Report on Assage Extradition - conclusions

The extradition of Julian Assange to the United States

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