by Joe Lauria, Consortium News:

Three extradition cases in the UK illustrate how the U.S. dominates Britain, but Julian Assange’s best chance to go free is to show that this time Washington has gone too far, Joe Lauria reports.

The formal extradition hearing that will determine whether imprisoned WikiLeaks publish Julian Assange is sent to the United States to stand trail on Espionage Act charges begins here Monday against the backdrop of U.S. domination of Britain in two other extradition cases. They could impact the decision on Assange as his lawyers argue his political case violates the U.S.-UK extradition treaty.

There is simmering anger in Britain over the death last August of 19-year old Harry Dunn after Anne Sacoolas, the wife of a U.S. intelligence agent based in Northamptonshire, turned into the wrong lane and mowed Dunn down on his motorbike.

Saccolas, whom the Mail on Sunday identified as formerly with the CIA, fled Britain back to the U.S. The Crown Prosecution Service charged her in Dunn’s death, but the U.S. refused to extradite her back to Britain, claiming she had diplomatic immunity. She had no official role in the UK.

The Mail on Sunday reported Sunday that Dunn’s parents had been to see British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab last month and told him Britain should not extradite Assange to the U.S. until Saccolas is extradited to the UK.  The newspaper quoted Dunn’s family lawyer, Radd Seiger, as saying:

“‘Despite its disgraceful refusal to extradite Anne Sacoolas, the US continues to seek the extradition of people in the UK such as Julian Assange. In doing so, they are demonstrating an extraordinary amount of hypocrisy.’

‘As Dominic Raab told us when we met with him on January 27, ‘we are reviewing all options.’ We want him now to exercise the option of not extraditing Julian Assange to the US.’”

With the U.S. refusing to extradite Sacoolas, while demanding at the same time the extradition of Assange, the question of British sovereignty rises to the fore. It is a moment for Britain to show it has the backbone and self-respect to stand up to the United States as an independent nation. The coincidence of the two cases could add pressure from the public on the British courts to link them, providing a possible opening for Assange.

A Second Case

The Saccolas case came after Home Secretary Priti Patel acceded to a U.S. extradition request earlier this month of British businessman Mike Lynch on a fraud charge. “Her decision opened up Tory divisions, with former Cabinet Minister David Davis using an article in The Mail on Sunday … to brand the US-UK extradition arrangements ‘a bad treaty’” the newspaper reported.  It said:

“Mr Davis accuses Ms Patel of ‘spiriting’ Mr Lynch away to America before the verdict and says the decision shows how the extradition treaty is skewed too heavily in favour of America, while doing little to protect Britons.

‘When the US Department of Justice requests the extradition of a UK citizen, we effectively have no choice but to cough them up,’ he writes.

But when UK authorities want to extradite an American ‘the US Secretary of State ‘may’ process the request. What the US ‘may’ choose to do was made crystal clear in the recent case of Anne Sacoolas and the death of Harry Dunn.’”

“The US prosecutors have no requirement to prove their case beyond stating ‘reasonable suspicion’, and there is no prima facie consideration of the charges in the UK,” Davis wrote. “Conversely, for the UK to extradite from the US, we have to clear a higher burden of demonstrating ‘probable cause’, which – unlike in the UK – can be challenged in the courts.”

Question  Time

These cases gave outgoing Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn an opening to ask Prime Minister Boris Johnson at Question Time on Feb. 12 whether there was a fair relationship between the U.S. and Britain in regard to extradition cases.  Corbyn called the extradition treaty with the U.S. “one-sided.”

“This lop-sided treaty means the U.S. can request extraditions in circumstances that Britain cannot. While the U.S. continues to deny justice to Harry Dunn, will the prime minister commit today to seek an equal and balanced extradition relationship with the United States?”

Johnson, shrewdly aware, no doubt, of Britons’ anger over Sacoolas case, gave a somewhat surprising, and for Assange supporters, encouraging answer. “To be frank I think the honorable gentleman has a point in his characterization of our extradition arrangements with the United States, and I do think there are elements of that relationship that are imbalanced and I certainly think they are worth looking at,” Johnson said.

Corbyn responded:

“This deep disparity with the U.S. is about to be laid bare when the courts decide whether the WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange will be extradited to the U.S. on charges of espionage for exposing war crimes, the murder of civilians and large scale corruption. … Will the prime minister agree with the parliamentary report that is going to the Council of Europe that this extradition should be opposed and the rights of journalists and whistleblowers be upheld for the good of all of us?”

Johnson replied: “I’m not going to comment on any individual case, but it is obvious that the rights of journalists and whistleblowers should be upheld and this government will clearly continue to do that.”

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