The brother of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has said that the legal fight to extradite him to the USA to face espionage charges has affected his whole family.
Gabriel Shipton was speaking ahead of the second day of an appeal hearing against his extradition in the High Court in London today.
He told GB News: “We'll be hearing from the United States, they’ll be putting their case as to why this appeal shouldn't be going ahead and usually these are the hardest days for us and our family, to hear from Julian's persecutors who have been keeping him in this prison for the last five years not serving a sentence.
“He's not convicted of anything. He's still there solely at the request of the people we'll be hearing from today.”
In a discussion during Breakfast with Eamonn Holmes and Isabel Webster, he continued: “The focus has really been on him and what he's done and his character, when it should be on how this affects everybody and the sort of unfairness of the UK-US extradition treaty, how the US can use its espionage laws now to reach into the United Kingdom and grab whoever they want.
“That's really an attack on UK sovereignty in a sense, and that extra-territorial application of US law into Britain should be something that concerns everyone.”
He also revealed that Assange is suffering from an unknown medical condition that is preventing him from participating in proceedings: “I don't know what's actually wrong with him at the moment, why he's not able to attend.
“He has had adverse health events in the prison in Belmarsh before. He had a hearing in 2021, where he had a mini stroke, so we just hope it's not another event like that.”
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