Something extremely dangerous is happening before our eyes as we watch British officials and the corporate media respond to today’s\u00a0ruling of the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, which found that Julian Assange is being arbitrarily detained in the UK.<\/p>\n
A major international institution upholding the rights of political dissidents around the world as they\u00a0face illegal detention, abuse and torture is being turned into a laughing stock with the enthusiastic connivance of supposedly liberal media outlets like the Guardian and the BBC.<\/p>\n
Reporters, columnists and comedians are pouring scorn on the UN group, legal experts who until yesterday were widely respected in the west and seen as a final bulwark against the most oppressive regimes on earth.<\/p>\n
In desperate moments, confined and isolated, dissidents like Aung Sang Suu Kyi in Burma and opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim in Malaysia could take solace from\u00a0the knowledge\u00a0that a respected UN group\u00a0stood\u00a0shoulder to shoulder with them. In some cases, faced\u00a0the weight of its opinion, regimes\u00a0preferred to release such dissidents.<\/p>\n
Now the UN Working Group\u2019s status and the significance of its decisions are\u00a0being irreparably undermined. In their desperation to keep Assange reviled, British officials and their collaborators in the media are destroying the last vestiges of protection for political dissidents around the world.<\/p>\n
The most glaring example of this process, as pointed out by the former UK diplomat Craig Murray, is\u00a0an outright lie being\u00a0peddled by\u00a0the British Foreign Secretary, Phillip Hammond. He says\u00a0the UN panel is \u201cmade up of lay people and not lawyers\u201d.<\/p>\n
In reality, the panel consists of distinguished legal experts in the field of international law. You can see their CVs here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Unlike Hammond, who is doubtless looking over his shoulder to the other side of the Atlantic, these are truly independent figures \u2013 that is, they are not beholden to the governments of the countries they are from. And if Mats Andenas, the Norwegian chair of the Working Group for\u00a0much of its investigation, is to be believed, they are brave too. He says the panel has come under intense pressure from the US and UK to arrive at a decision contrary to the one they actually reached.<\/p>\n We know why the US wanted the panel\u2019s decision to go against Assange \u2013 after all, he is in the Ecuadorean embassy precisely because he fears extradition to the US, where a secret grand jury is awaiting him.<\/p>\n But one has to wonder why the UK was so keen to overturn the Working Group\u2019s ruling. Doesn\u2019t the UK claim it is simply a \u201cbobby on the beat\u201d, trying to uphold the letter of the law as it spends millions on policing Assange\u2019s detention? If the UN group says Assange should go free, that\u2019s a nice little saving for the British taxpayer, isn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n Hammond\u2019s lie has not been challenged in the British media, even though a quick Google search would prove\u00a0it is\u00a0a\u00a0falsehood. And now Murray informs us<\/a>, the Foreign Office\u2019s official spokesman has said\u00a0the government department stands by the\u00a0lie. In short, Hammond’s\u00a0lie is no longer simply one\u00a0politician\u2019s foolish spin, but the official view of the diplomatic service.<\/p>\n