George Galloway
was a member of
the British Parliament for nearly 30 years. He presents TV and radio shows
(including on RT). He is a film-maker, writer and a renowned orator.
26 Nov, 2019
17:40 / Updated 2 days ago
© AFP
/ Lillian SUWANRUMPHA; REUTERS/Henry Nicholls
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The grand old
Duke of York sleeps tonight on a feather pillow in a royal palace. Julian
Assange, the publisher of the century sleeps in the hell of Belmarsh Prison,
Britain’s own Guantanamo Bay.
The Duke of York
lied about the length duration and nature of his relationship with the presumed
deceased child-sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. Julian Assange told the truth
about the high crimes and misdemeanours of the rich and powerful during times
of war and peace.
The FBI need to
speak to the Queen’s favorite son, but no power on earth will be deployed to
make him testify about what he might have seen, or even have participated in,
at the townhouse in Manhattan, a Sodom and Gomorrah of our times.
The same US
Justice system has caused the cruel incarceration of Assange and his Kafkaesque
entrapment in an extradition saga which may last for years - if he doesn’t die
before it is over as no less than 60 doctors have recently warned he may well
do.
The US-UK
extradition arrangements may be the most unequal treaty ever concluded by Her
Majesty’s ministers. In this case the former Blair government Home Secretary
David Blunkett, a blind man who could, nonetheless, see exactly what he was
doing.
In essence extradition
from Britain to the US became virtually on request without the slightest need
to show just cause. But not vice versa. It would be easier to pull a camel
through the eye of a needle than for Britain to extradite a US citizen to face
justice in the UK.
I was a member
of the British Parliament at the time this treaty was signed. Not that this
mattered a jot or tittle. The Treaty was signed during the Summer Recess when
no Parliament was sitting and through the exercise of the Royal Prerogative.
Only when it was
already in operation was I even able to oppose the extradition of its first
victims - alleged City of London financial fraudsters, as well as a fitted-up
“terrorist” London man Babar Ahmad.
Under the old
extradition rules neither case could have satisfied the previous requirement to
produce prima facia evidence sufficient to persuade a British judge. Under the
new Treaty it was easy peasy lemon squeezy. And off they went.
Prince Andrew
will face no such ordeal albeit now banished from Royal Circles and effectively
reduced to the ranks, his epaulettes ripped off his glittering array of obscure
medals turned to scrap metal on his tunic.
Although accused
of sexual abuse of a teenager and with an admitted close relationship to the
alleged procurer of underage female victims, Ghislaine Maxwell, in whose London
home it is alleged one of the sexual encounters took place - the US will never
require the Prince to give evidence and the UK will never offer him up.
Assange, who was
falsely accused of rape, has spent virtually the last decade locked up in one
form or other of incarceration. And faces up to 175 years of prison time, if
successfully extradited.
It is a tale of
two cities - Buckingham Palace and Belmarsh Maximum Security Prison.
A tale of two
individuals - one now a proven liar and one a well attested truth-teller.
A tale of two
fates. The Prince who became a moral pauper, the other an impecunious
journalist who became a moral giant.
It is a tale of
our times.
/https://www.niagarafallsreview.ca/content/dam/thestar/news/canada/2021/09/25/huawei-executive-meng-wanzhou-receives-warm-welcome-upon-return-to-china/_1_meng_wanzhou_2.jpg)
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