Hindi English Translation || Editorial || End the punishment: On Julian Assange

End the punishment: On Julian Assange

Assange should be set free, and not extradited to the U.S.

Julian Assange, founder of whistle-blower website WikiLeaks, has won a legal reprieve (राहत) in the U.K., with permission to appeal against an extradition order that would see him transferred to the U.S. to face trial for allegedly leaking military secrets. The ruling came after the High Court ruled in March that the U.S. government would be given three weeks to assure that Mr. Assange – an Australian national – would, during trial, be allowed to rely on the First Amendment of the U.S. constitution that protects freedom of speech; that he would not be “prejudiced (पूर्वाग्रह) at trial” for being a foreign national in a U.S. court; and that the death penalty would not be applied in his case. Although his legal team did not contest the assurance provided by Washington that it was an “unambiguous (स्पष्ट) executive promise” that the death penalty would be avoided in his case, the U.K. judges appeared to accept their argument of prejudice towards his nationality in the context of his right to free speech, especially after “a U.S. prosecutor had said the first amendment may not apply to foreigners when it came to national security issues”. Mr. Assange will now have a few months to prepare his appeal.

Several facts stand out in the case of Mr. Assange, which entered the global spotlight (प्रकाश डालना, सुर्खियां, प्रमुखता) since April 2010, when WikiLeaks published leaked videos from a U.S. helicopter in Baghdad showing an airstrike that killed civilians. The organisation then published secret military documents on the U.S. wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and confidential cables of U.S. diplomatic missions. The key consideration regarding U.S. charges against Mr. Assange for allegedly (कथित) violating the Espionage Act, brought against him in 2019 by the administration of former President Donald Trump, is that Mr. Assange has spent seven years holed up in the Ecuadorian Embassy and then a further five years in the U.K.’s Belmarsh Prison — a lengthy incarceration (कारावास) considering that Chelsea Manning, the erstwhile U.S. military analyst and whistle-blower who transmitted the confidential (गोपनीय) information from U.S. government servers to WikiLeaks, was sentenced to 35 years in prison in 2013, and then that sentence was commuted (कम करना, परिवर्तित करना) by former U.S. President Barack Obama in 2017. While Mr. Assange’s critics, including notably the U.S. government, point out that he did not redact (संशोधित करना) names in his mega-scale exposé, thus allowing Washington to argue that the revelations (प्रकट करना) placed individuals at “risk of serious harm, torture or even death”, the publication of the documents raised serious questions regarding human rights violations, for example in the targeting of civilians during war. In this sense Mr. Assange and WikiLeaks performed a public service akin to what journalism of conscience does. And considering that he has been punished enough already, he should be allowed to fly home.

Courtesy: The Hindu

Important Word List With Meaning

1.Reprieve (Noun)

Hindi Meaning - राहत
English Meaning - A cancellation or postponement of a punishment.

2.Prejudice (Noun)

Hindi Meaning - पूर्वाग्रह
English Meaning - Preconceived opinion not based on reason or experience.

3.Unambiguous (Adjective)

Hindi Meaning - स्पष्ट
English Meaning - Not open to more than one interpretation; clear.

4.Spotlight (Noun)

Hindi Meaning - प्रकाश डालना, सुर्खियां, प्रमुखता
English Meaning - Intense scrutiny or public attention.

5.Incarceration (Noun)

Hindi Meaning - कारावास
English Meaning - The state of being confined in prison.

6.Confidential (Adjective)

Hindi Meaning - गोपनीय
English Meaning - Intended to be kept secret.

7.Commute (Verb)

Hindi Meaning - कम करना, परिवर्तित करना
English Meaning - To reduce a judicial sentence to one less severe.

8.Redact (Verb)

Hindi Meaning - संशोधित करना
English Meaning - To edit text for publication.

9.Alleged (Adjective)

Hindi Meaning - कथित
English Meaning - Claimed to be true, especially without proof.

10.Reveal (Verb)

Hindi Meaning - प्रकट करना
English Meaning - To make known to others.