British Interior Minister Priti Patel has ordered the extraction of Julian Assange in the United States .
The final green light from the head of the Home Office, considered obvious, comes after the judicial procedure in the United Kingdom had been completed on the controversial affair of the Australian activist who risks serving a very heavy sentence in a US prison for having contributed to disseminate through the online platform Wikileaks confidential documents also containing information on war crimes committed by US forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.
WikiLeaks reacted immediately, commenting bitterly: "It's a dark day for press freedom".
Stella Morris , a South African human rights lawyer who bore two children to Julian Assange during his asylum years, also spoke of "a black day" not only for freedom of information, but also for "British democracy" in the Ecuadorian embassy in London and then married him in recent months in the London prison of Belmarsh .
"Anyone in this country who cares about freedom of expression should be deeply ashamed" of Patel's approval of extradition to the US, "a country that plotted to assassinate him," Morris added.
" Julian has done nothing wrong, he is a journalist and publisher punished for having done his duty " by revealing confidential documents and embarrassing information on acts committed by various states, including the US.
And again: "Priti Patel had the power to do the right thing, instead she will be remembered as an accomplice of the United States, of their project to transform investigative journalism into a criminal enterprise".
According to Morris, however, even if "the road to Julian's freedom becomes long and tortuous", the battle "does not end here": starting from "the appeal that we will propose again to the High Court " in London and the organization of street protests.
(Unioneonline / lf)
