Nungali Posted November 19, 2019 " ...But his physical appearance was not as shocking as his mental deterioration. When asked to give his name and date of birth, he struggled visibly over several seconds to recall both. I will come to the important content of his statement at the end of proceedings in due course, but his difficulty in making it was very evident; it was a real struggle for him to articulate the words and focus his train of thought. " Until yesterday I had always been quietly sceptical of those who claimed that Julian’s treatment amounted to torture – even of Nils Melzer, the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture – and sceptical of those who suggested he may be subject to debilitating drug treatments. But having attended the trials in Uzbekistan of several victims of extreme torture, and having worked with survivors from Sierra Leone and elsewhere, I can tell you that yesterday changed my mind entirely and Julian exhibited exactly the symptoms of a torture victim brought blinking into the light, particularly in terms of disorientation, confusion, and the real struggle to assert free will through the fog of learned helplessness. " Everybody in that court yesterday saw that one of the greatest journalists and most important dissidents of our times is being tortured to death by the state, before our eyes. To see my friend, the most articulate man, the fastest thinker, I have ever known, reduced to that shambling and incoherent wreck, was unbearable. Yet the agents of the state, particularly the callous magistrate Vanessa Baraitser, were not just prepared but eager to be a part of this bloodsport. She actually told him that if he were incapable of following proceedings, then his lawyers could explain what had happened to him later. The question of why a man who, by the very charges against him, was acknowledged to be highly intelligent and competent, had been reduced by the state to somebody incapable of following court proceedings, gave her not a millisecond of concern. " https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2019/10/assange-in-court/ 1 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Walker Posted November 20, 2019 (edited) Scary. Extralegal legal proceedings = Kafkaesque hell. Scratch that. Legal or extralegal, most courts and prisons are hellish, period. It is a disgrace they cannot mount their case without grinding the man nearly to death and insanity. Edited November 20, 2019 by Walker Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
doc benway Posted November 20, 2019 6 hours ago, Walker said: Scary. Extralegal legal proceedings = Kafkaesque hell. Scratch that. Legal or extralegal, most courts and prisons are hellish, period. It is a disgrace they cannot mount their case without grinding the man nearly to death and insanity. I suspect it is as much punitive as "investigative." These type of people don't seem much interested in law and justice, just fear and intimidation. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
