this post was submitted on 25 Jun 2024
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[–] [email protected] 163 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Isn't it great that a man who exposed governmental corruption and war crimes faced a harsher persecution and punishment than the corrupt governments and war criminals themselves?

Democracy™️

[–] [email protected] 30 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Sounds like they got what they needed from him

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

They wanted to make an example of someone. His thumbing his nose at the US government was well publicised, so they made their revenge on him very public too.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

He pleaded guilty and agreed to delete "secret documents", whatever the hell that would be, as part of the deal

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 month ago (1 children)

This might hurt future publishers of whistleblowers. Does this set the precedent that publishing info from whistleblowers can be prosecuted as espionage?

[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I don't know the details of how the US legal system works but isn't a plea bargain essentially the same as a settlement in civil cases?

If so, it should (at least in theory) have very little prejudicial value since the courts did not rule on the question if Assange's culpability.

I know that in the real world the US regime once again learned that it can get away with murder and journalists all over the world have already learned the lesson that the evil empire will fuck them up if they air their dirty laundry. But from a legal nerd point of view a settlement should be quite useles as a precedent.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago

That sounds right

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 month ago (2 children)

How many years would his prison sentence have been if he was extradided the year he fled to the embassy? I feel like he would have been out by now. Wasn't he leaking early Iraq war corruption stuff? That was 20 years ago.

[–] [email protected] 65 points 1 month ago

He didn't leak, he published.

That's what's so concerning about the case. The USA tried to persecute an Australian citizen working out of the EU for publishing information.

If precedent was set they could kidnap anyone from sovereign countries based on US law

[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 month ago (2 children)

He might have been epsteined though

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago

IIRC he had some kind of insurance file against that, I think there used to be some encrypted file you could download from Wikileaks and if he died the password would be released.

No idea what it was (if anything, it could have just been a bluff of course) but it seems to have had the desired effect so far.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago
[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago

I mean, I was so sure they wanted to incarcerate him until he commits suicide!

Wow

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago

HANDS OFF

ASS

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago

It's not over yet.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

Julian should have never been jailed.