Les craintes de Julian Assange

Les craintes de Julian Assange

Assange donne ce 24 décembre 2010 une interview au Guardian où il expose ses craintes pour son avenir. Il n’est plus guère question de l’affaire suédoise mais bien plutôt d’une possible demande d’extradition des USA, et Assange semble penser qu’elle se fera directement au Royaum-Uni (donc, il semble penser que la Suède n’aurait guère de chance d’obtenir son extradition). S’il est extradé, Assange craint un sort semblable à celui de Lee Harvey Oswald, tué par Ruby alors qu’il avait été arrêté pour l’assassinat de Kennedy.

«Julian Assange said today that it would be "politically impossible" for Britain to extradite him to the United States, and that the final word on his fate if he were charged with espionage would rest with David Cameron.

»In an interview with the Guardian in Ellingham Hall, the Norfolk country mansion where he is living under virtual house arrest, the founder of WikiLeaks said it would be difficult for the prime minister to hand him over to the Americans if there was strong support for him from the British people. “It's all a matter of politics. We can presume there will be an attempt to influence UK political opinion, and to influence the perception of our standing as a moral actor,” he said.

»Assange is currently fighting extradition to Sweden. He strongly denies allegations of sexual misconduct with two Swedish women. But he believes the biggest threat to his freedom and to WikiLeaks, his whistleblowing website, emanates from a wrathful United States.

»There is no evidence of any imminent US move to indict him. But according to Assange, the Obama administration is “trying to strike a plea deal” with Bradley Manning, the 23-year-old intelligence officer and alleged source of the more than a quarter of a million US diplomatic cables embarrassingly leaked last month. The US attorney general, Eric Holder, wants to indict Assange as a co-conspirator and is also examining “computer hacking statutes and support for terrorism”, Assange claims.

»Sitting in front of a log fire, his Apple MacBook Pro perched on his lap, Assange said his recent nine-day spell in Wandsworth jail had prepared him for the possibility that he might spend a long period in prison if indicted by the US. He said the prospect of solitary confinement was no longer an "intellectual abstraction" but a reality. The high court bailed him to Norfolk last Thursday, with his extradition hearing scheduled for 6-7 February.

»He said: “Solitary confinement is very difficult. But I know that provided there is some opportunity for correspondence I can withstand it. I'm mentally robust. Of course it would mean the end of my life in the conventional sense.” If the US succeeded in removing him from the UK or Sweden, Assange said there was a “high chance” of him being killed “Jack Ruby-style” in the US prison system.»

Cette idée d’un assassinat de Assange dans une prison US s’il est extradé est largement mise en évidence par les rapports qui sont faits de l’interview. Ainsi AFP (via Yahoo.com), l:e 23 décembre 2010 : «Assange says ‘high chance’ he would be killed in US jail».

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