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00:00 Well for more analysis I'm joined by our International Affairs Editor Angela Diffley.
00:03 Angela welcome to the programme. What are we hearing from Assange's supporters there in London?
00:08 Well it's very interesting to notice this new background to what his supporters are saying.
00:15 We heard there of course from Estella Assange's wife talking about comparisons which they see
00:21 with the very suspicious circumstances around the death of Alexei Navalny. They are suggesting that
00:28 Putin is going to love this if Julian Assange is extradited to the United States. She talked
00:34 about the United States virtually criminalising investigative journalism and that is what they
00:41 are very keen to push to the fore. There are a number of Amnesty International, Human Rights
00:46 Watch and a number of journalist groups are there in support of Julian Assange.
00:54 They also, his lawyer pointed out today, that national security leaks in the United States
01:01 are fairly routine. It does happen quite often and it is very rare for a prosecution to take place.
01:08 So they are insisting that this is politically motivated. The United States points out that in
01:14 this particular case they say that Julian Assange endangered the life by divulging the identity
01:22 of key people, key informants in Iraq and Afghanistan and that their lives were put
01:27 in danger. That is why they say they are taking this so seriously. It's important for Assange's
01:32 people to make clear that they see this as a politically motivated prosecution because the UK
01:41 US extradition treaty excludes that sort of case. Okay and this is being billed very much as being
01:51 a last chance for Assange's legal team to try to prevent him from being extradited to the United
01:57 States. I mean is that the case? Well today he doesn't have to prove, his team do not have to
02:02 prove that this is politically motivated or anything along those lines. What they have to
02:06 prove today is that he can, they have to win, that he can appeal against this extradition ruling which
02:15 was made in 2021 and then confirmed by the UK Supreme Court in 2022. That is what they have to
02:21 do today and it's likely to go on until tomorrow and finish, maybe tomorrow we don't know.
02:26 It is, that is what they are set to do. If they lose their argument then Stella Assange has
02:37 talked of taking this case to the European Court of Human Rights. Now that would not be on about
02:42 about a politically motivated or not argument. Either it would be about his human rights and
02:49 they would apply for an emergency injunction. It's worth looking at how this is viewed in the United
02:55 States. Obama commuted the 35-year jail sentence that Bradley Manning who handed over documents to
03:00 Assange, he commuted that to four years. Trump pursued this extradition and Biden has continued
03:07 to pursue it and has said that Julian Assange resembles more, he said, a high-tech terrorist
03:13 than a whistleblower. So there's not much to be gained by sticking up for Julian Assange in a US
03:20 electoral campaign. Okay well thank you very much indeed for that. Angela Diffley, our International
03:24 Affairs Editor. Thank you.