John
12-24-2010, 05:16 PM
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has claimed he could be killed if he is detained in an American jail.
But, in an interview with The Guardian, he also said it would be "politically impossible" for Britain to extradite him to the United States for alleged espionage.
Assange is currently on bail in the UK amid moves to extradite him to Sweden on sex assault charges.
American authorities are reportedly considering whether they could extradite him to stand trial for espionage over leaked US diplomatic cables.
The WikiLeaks website has distributed about 1,900 of the more than 250,000 embassy documents it claims to possess.
Many of them contain critical or embarrassing US assessments of foreign nations and their leaders.
Assange told the paper, if he was extradited to America, there was a "high chance" of him being killed "Jack Ruby-style" in the US prison system.
Ruby is the man who shot dead Lee Harvey Oswald before he could stand trial for the murder of President John F Kennedy.
But Mr Assange also believed it would be difficult for the British to hand him over to the Americans, if there was strong public support for him in the UK.
"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.
He added: "Legally the UK has the right to not extradite for political crimes.
"Espionage is the classic case of political crimes. It is at the discretion of the UK Government as to whether to apply to that exception."
Source - Yahoo News.
But, in an interview with The Guardian, he also said it would be "politically impossible" for Britain to extradite him to the United States for alleged espionage.
Assange is currently on bail in the UK amid moves to extradite him to Sweden on sex assault charges.
American authorities are reportedly considering whether they could extradite him to stand trial for espionage over leaked US diplomatic cables.
The WikiLeaks website has distributed about 1,900 of the more than 250,000 embassy documents it claims to possess.
Many of them contain critical or embarrassing US assessments of foreign nations and their leaders.
Assange told the paper, if he was extradited to America, there was a "high chance" of him being killed "Jack Ruby-style" in the US prison system.
Ruby is the man who shot dead Lee Harvey Oswald before he could stand trial for the murder of President John F Kennedy.
But Mr Assange also believed it would be difficult for the British to hand him over to the Americans, if there was strong public support for him in the UK.
"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.
He added: "Legally the UK has the right to not extradite for political crimes.
"Espionage is the classic case of political crimes. It is at the discretion of the UK Government as to whether to apply to that exception."
Source - Yahoo News.