Expert: Extradition trial of Julian Assange

The U.S. government began outlining its extradition case against Julian Assange in a London court on February 24, arguing that the WikiLeaks founder is not a free-speech champion but an "ordinary" criminal who put many lives at risk with his secret-spilling. U.S. authorities want to try Assange on espionage charges that carry a maximum sentence of 175 years in prison over the 2010 publication of hundreds of thousands of secret military documents and diplomatic cables. (CBC News)

Here is a McGill expert who can comment on this topic:

Frédéric Mégret, Full Professor, Faculty of Law

“Should Julian Assange be extradited by the United Kingdom to the United States? Despite the existence of a treaty between both countries, strong concerns arise about what might be Assange’s treatment in the US and whether what he did was even illegal, given free speech protections and the public’s interest in the sort of information that was revealed by the leaks.”

Frédéric Mégret is a Full Professor in the Faculty of Law and a William Dawson Scholar. He held the Canada Research Chair on the Law of Human Rights and Legal Pluralism from 2006 to 2015. He has a long-term interest in developing theories about the nature and history of international criminal justice.

frederic.megret [at] mcgill.ca (English, French)