News Reporter
JULIAN ASSANGE could be held at Covid-hit Belmarsh prison for months to come after he was denied bail today.
The “illogical” decision by District Judge Vanessa Baraitser comes days after she blocked the Wikileaks founder’s extradition to the United States on grounds that he would be at risk of taking his own life if held in isolation.
The judge rejected bail over fears that Mr Assange could abscond while waiting for the US to launch its appeal.
Outside Westminster magistrates’ court in central London, Mr Assange’s partner Stella Moris said the decision was a “huge disappointment.”
JEREMY CORBYN made an impassioned call for peace and solidarity with refugees at the Morning Star Christmas rally on Wednesday night.
Linking the refugee crisis to British wars, he said: “The biggest criticism I got as Labour leader was for giving an apology for the Iraq war.”
The wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Syria had made the world “a more dangerous place. The real issues poverty, environmental destruction, exploitation, racism and discrimination are not going to be solved with F16 bombs.”
Thousands of people watched the virtual rally which heard Morning Star reporter Bethany Rielly talk on the appalling treatment of asylum-seekers by the Tory government and its determination to deport 1,000 people by the end of the year.
by Bethany Rielly
PRESSURE is mounting on the Metropolitan Police to sack a police officer filmed punching a black teenager outside a school in north London.
The circulation of the video on social media sparked outrage last week, prompting protests last Friday.
The Met claimed that three officers were injured after a 16-year-old was detained during a stop and search outside a school in Haringey on December 8.
In a statement on December 11, police said that they circled the teenager after a crowd gathered. Four 16-year-olds were arrested during the incident and released on bail.
Local activists in Tottenham today disputed the Met’s version of events, condemning claims that officers were injured as “pure fiction.”