Praised the 911 attacks as a rebel i call. Very good evening and thanks for joining us this is. U. S. Prosecutors have made a formal request to the u. K. For the extradition of wiki leaks cofounder Julian Assange has been slapped with 18 charges by the u. S. Department of justice including conspiracy to commit computer hacking and violation of the espionage act from london. Yes confirmation today that u. S. Authorities have put in that official request for extradition fortunately in a song found over the week felix website is currently serving 15 prison sentence for skipping bail in the u. K. Will a junior miss salis was sealed recently looking cool to playing in a video that a marriage belmarsh prison and dating his fall but has been unable to visit him on t. V. Hes been speaking to join a ship to be told this zooms do it for a major story some problems be. Possible. But his spirit struck. Right because it might. Be. Now stabilized. Judy in a soldiers faces charges under the espinosa act of 1917 year olds to conspiracy to hack government computer is in the u. S. And thats why the former request for extradition has been made by the authorities at this event and many people are hoping to continue raising awareness all to hear the song just pace and many have been telling us why its so important at the students pace remains in the public eye ive been speaking to touch pending since 21st why it took on the d. O. J. Is really really stacked high and so i think a lot of people believe this is also a strategy there is not a guarantee that joyce on to actually be extradited to the United States so right now we have a hearing on friday which is going to be a belmarsh for the. House outside belmarsh prison thats an extradition hearing then its going to also go to the government as well and effectively you could have a situation where the home secretary would be charged with making that final call now does britain want that on its legacy thats a historic line to cross not only for the United States to charge a publisher a journalist on the espionage act but for the British Government to hand over a journalist an Award Winning journalist to the United States where the u. N. And other bodies have ruled pretty clearly that he will not get a fair trial its a highly politicized case but i think a lot of people believe that this this is going to be one this this battle for free press and free speech for julius on just life will be also won in the public of the spear of Public Opinion and so building awareness is absolutely essential this event to raise awareness for juvenile songs and also the ticket sales for this event going to woods his defense fees we know that there are going to be individuals such as damon 50. 00 in westwood speaking tonight and many others who have been vocal in the course of julian the souls and many people concerned the decision is extradited to the u. S. Theyre not completely deaf nailer ate the fruit in the press. Wiki leaks activists clocks to 3 joins me now what do you think of this formal request for the extradition of julian the songs to think its likely to be a successful. I sure hope its not successful but i do believe that the power that the United States government is holding over the u. K. Leads me to believe that the extradition will go forward however its unprecedented and its going to leave you know huge stains on any kind of freedom of press record but the u. K. Or the u. S. Has ever touted its its not a state its going to be devastating for all journalists its devastating for their star witness Chelsea Manning because here theyre saying that theyve got these indictments that theyre ready to extradite and yet she still being held for contempt of court for refusing to testify against your about things that she testified in her grand jury or shes in a Court Martial back in 2013. But i think its you know its gotten to the same k. Charges that manning got back in 2002 guys a lot and and and so to the state 9 years later were still. Going through all of this and yet no war and theres no war criminals are in jail and so its a blatant message that you know the the crime is is is reporting to the people but the enemy or the people. Because you know theyre still using this aiding the enemy. Notion and theyre and theyre also you know trying to say that journalism is espionage which. I think as i heard just now is the nail in the coffin for freedom of the process in the u. S. And and as we can see you know julian was in the u. S. He was in europe and so. For the United States to k. And be able to wield their power over these other nations to go after journalists that they dont like because they expose the truth of war crimes corruption and so forth. Thats really devastating on so many levels. The surge is actually in effect being held. As we speak in order to help raise awareness of julius on cases in london i believe do you think that being a public support there is quite a lot of public support for assad to do that could actually swing any extradition decision in his favor. You know i always grapple with whether ready street action protests and so forth does make a difference and and you know i do believe it does i believe it made a difference when obama commuter chelsea suttons. But i think it requires a lot of different tactics are just being on the streets but writing op eds in the letters its through social media and so forth so. You know i certainly. Hope that these things. Do make a difference but more importantly i would hope that. The judge would be just. Aware and open and listening and paying attention to whats going on is the u. N. Saying this is wrong you know that sweden has is no longer Going Forward with their investigation. And yet we still have this this bogeyman in the United States bullying. Bullies the u. K. Government has as you know also bullied the swedish government. To kind laying them come in and dictate the laws of their land and then completely disregard all the entire institution of asylum and to be taking his things from the Ecuadorian Embassy all of this is just a major travesty and i really think it was any other country. That their embassies would be kicked out of the. Speaking of i think you could also talk of just what they want i just want to pick up on that because theyve recently refused the extradition of an alleged an american fraudster they cited humanitarian reasons for that they seem more than happy to sell and show that to the u. K. Authorities there is there any sense of double standards that. Oh it doesnt play double standards very hypocrite or is very showing of the morals and the ethics of these governments. You know really is and so as long as you know money talks. You know that people like him will be will be freed and so forth as long as as. You know the message that we feel leaks has been publishing as been the truth and it showing that these you know majors or. Government organizations are committing fraud are committing war crimes and so forth. You know then then the messenger is going to be the one that keeps going you know locked away. And i think the only way that we can we can win this is a numbers of resilience and just get out there and keep fighting otherwise the fascists are going away and appears to be thats the direction thats going if we dont stand up and were have to. Stand up hard we can we can no longer just expect you know tweets and so forth we really have to fight this war and. Every journalist every every person on both sides of the political spectrum who has a buku Critical Thinking skills the ability to reason and ability to look at the facts rather than the hype or the political kind of propaganda that has been pushed by the republicans and democrats. You know everyones hated wiki leaks at some point because they publish something that they dont like. But the fact of the marriages is its always been 100 percent factual evidence. Maybe people need to start hating the facts of the matter rather than those super. To us and i just i really am hoping that something comes through this week. That there is some kind of light that goes off in the judges brain. Because it seems to me at this point. The u. K. Is really doing the bidding of the u. S. Government is and has really come to the show that the u. K. Really cares nothing about this investigation going on in its pollute. And never will but what they do what i do is bow down to the u. S. Government just surprising with their bowing down to trumps administration. Its surprising that this is all coming back even after the Obama Administration said that this would be a horrible president to go after a foreign journalist. You know doing the same thing that that New York Times the Washington Post major news outlets all around the world do and so you know we do this to julian then the door has been over why so that really any journalist around the world covering the United States government. You know the subtle to being arrested and. I just i really fear not just for julians life but the future of journalism as we. Thought appreciate your time i guess cox that a wiki leaks activist thank you. Russian investigative journalist and officers walked free from detention russian officials announced earlier that they dropped the criminal case against him over the illegal possession of drugs evidence gathered was said to being rigs and been found invalid lets look at the 1st moments of the journalists release. I do feel for a few who are here i hope the investigation will continue and no one will find themselves in the same situation i happen to be in the future a little. I 6 and british thanks a lot of children for support thank you but now i need time to come to terms with whats happened hes a journalist attention of a widespread outrage not just among the media but publicly to parties and i guess the have looks at the fallout from this controversial case. The head of russias Narcotics Police has been fired the Police Officers who carried out the arrest there theyve been suspended theyre under investigation by internal affairs over how they carried out the arrest whether they used too much force whether through the legal itself theyre also investigating the investigation which led to the arrests to see whether police went beyond the scope of their powers where they were whether they had legitimate evidence proved to carry out those arrests and im sure theyll be many more people fired because this was this was a huge scandal especially in russia very very resonant nevertheless for him the trial is now over. According to the results of forensic biological fingerprint and genetic testing we made a decision to stop the criminal prosecution of event go in of due to the lack of evidence of his participation in a crime the charges are dropped all charges dropped hes been released from house arrest the investigation is now over the investigation is switched to the investigators whether what they did was lawful and whether the went beyond the scope of their powers abused. Their powers slits nicomedia Russian Investigative Committee will analyze the material sent by the interior ministry own Security Service in connection with the Police Officers involved in the criminal prosecution of a van gogh not the investigation will trace all circumstances related to chronicle and of detention over the illegal circulation of narcotic drugs if the plaintiff is to gays should propes there are grounds for concern a lawful and reasonable decision will be taken in this case of course has been good average both in the media and among the public but it all start when he was arrested in on friday thats when the news went public 1st police. Said that during the arrest they found 5 packages containers with methadone a drug inside them this is all coming from the police the investigators that have now been suspended immediately after his arrest the controversy began because he said that they had been planted the drugs had been planted on him and add his house urine tests other tests carried out by medics showed that he had new drugs in his system nevertheless police tried to charge him with the accusation was that he was part of a drug ring his colleagues reacted straightaway the ones that work at medusa the outlet the publication where he works they didnt believe the charges they believed that they were falsified they knew him they didnt believe that he could do such a thing you know sell drugs hes respected journalist there was a lot of outrage over the arrested self because apparently he said he was assaulted by a Police Officer he was taken to hospital the released with the doctor saying that there was nothing serious and then this scandal exploded every day it got bigger and bigger and bigger went global really do believe we had politicians on the other you know the western hemisphere talking about this 1st began with russian journalists they came out in solidarity russias 3 biggest newspapers running with the same headline front page saying we are. In total solidarity with and then it was the t. V. Channels the joined in our editor in chief Margarita Simonyan she came out in support of him eventually reached even the politicians we had like me a putin spokesperson come out in support of him and you know with the pressure building in building perhaps. That that is what pushed the ministry of interior to start looking at things seriously to see whether. Something had gone wrong because weve had protests public protests was just journalists and politicians public protest in front of the ministry of interior that we got things going. Im joined now by author russia analyst Martin Mccauley getting the martin report you think this probe and its result will mean for journalism both here in russia and across the world its a potentially very rare city of newark and development because now investigating. The perp and time and if you can though since 2028 generals have lost their lives now does it mean a complete change doesnt mean i would be journalism or protected from the police and the judiciary does it mean that they will be able to carry out probing and john because going to north koreas eyes the military criticized the City Government of he criticized the ship of the media and so on in other words he in fact made a public enemy number one well a lot of officials a lot of institutions now will be easier for journalists in the future to actually prove into corruption and so on the really were put in as the corruption is a major problem in russia so there was quite its quite legal its quite ok to go and investigate it so its very very important now and they are going to not he he in fact know is world famous goes even the times of london of take it up his case and theres a theres a a leader in todays paper nothing is world famous from now on so therefore presumably that would protect him but what about the other journalists were not very well known will they be protected and so on we have to wait and see the case certainly stirred widespread outrage and protests that weve weve seen in the videos weve been showing how influential do you think they were in achieving this outcome. I think they work from for the minister of interior rattray catastrophic because it revealed if you like it see the public. The community its ordinary russians and so on were now saying this is a frame up and so on we want to protest and so on and this is if you like a beginning of a Civil Movement if you like its Civil Society exercising its rights and saying the authorities in fact have gone beyond the pale they have framed this man this journalist because he criticizes them and therefore we must stand up for him and therefore the authorities from now on specially the minister of interior with the police they will have to consider the role of Sugar Society when it comes through legal cases criminal cases should an occasion and so on because now there is an awareness within the population that they can actually do something they can achieve something its a put test. And all the other newspapers the leading newspapers they they came out to protect to protect themselves and protect the north and therefore we could now see fundamental change in the attitude to the press because Civil Society has now become involved and there and people like alex in a venue has been in and out of prison and so on whats going to happen to him what about protests in the future so the authorities have a major problem here because if people should resign to believe that somebody is wrongfully indicted accused of a crime and so on then they will protest and they will not fear their priorities the luxury of the police clamping down on them and this is very important for the minister that era and for the police and so on they would have to be more concerned about the little and this will strengthen the little russian dog because a statute the law instead you book is very strong indeed it has to be implemented. And there for what the public is mostly. The law should be admitted because its clear and it predicts really will reduce your illusions your work the legal duty and so on so this could be a word it could be a significant move in the development of. Martin appreciate you coming on fascinating point you made that or thought russia analyst martin mccoy. Has more of a scandalous are up today in brazil after leaked messages there suggested a Corruption Case against the countrys former president Lula Da Silva was politically motivated the messages published by investigative news site the intercept appeared to show a judge discussing that probe with prosecutors supporters of lula say the link confirms their fears that the case was a stitch up designed to prevent him from winning reelection last year the probe itself was part of brazils biggest Anti Corrup