UK: Assange extradition case is 'show trial' - John Pilger *PARTNER CONTENT*

*BUG AT SOURCE* *NO CUTAWAYS AT SOURCE* *JUMPCUTS AT SOURCE*
SOT, John Pilger, Australian journalist: "It was an atrocious event. In this courtroom, presided over by a judge - she is a mere magistrate actually, which has elevated her to judge - in which she said imperiously to Julian Assange: 'Have you anything to say?', and he stood, 'Could you stand, Mr. Assange?', her dictatorial gestures to this sick man through the whole thing was just disgraceful. And he stood, and his lips moved, and nothing came out, and still nothing came out. And I strained to hear what he was saying. He said: 'For 10 years' he said this very falteringly, 'for 10 years the superpower has had all this time to prepare a case against me, I am denied the opportunity' I am not paraphrasing now, 'I am denied the opportunity, I can't even have access to my writings,' as he calls it. He means the documents. His defense documents. He can't see his defense documents. To say that's surreal is not enough. It's truly appalling." *MULTIPLE SHOTS AT SOURCE*
SOT, John Pilger, Australian journalist: "She [District Judge Vanessa Baraitser] was biased, all the judges have been. The previous one - Lady Arbuthnot, whose husband, Lord Arbuthnot, was revealed in Wikileaks' cables to be up to his neck in the national security state and arms companies and so on and so forth and she should have never been sitting on the bench. This one, her bias was incandescent. I have sat on a number of courts, all over the world, I've never seen anything like this. It belonged in a show trial. In the 1950's." *MULTIPLE SHOTS AT SOURCE*
SOT, John Pilger, Australian journalist: "The decision [to go on with Assange's extradition hearing] was made simply because decision had been preordained, said 'this is what the state wants and this is what the state will get', regardless of anything to do with a court, regardless of any defence argument." *MULTIPLE SHOTS AT SOURCE*
SOT, John Pilger, Australian journalist: "The man has been so mistreated. I saw him last Thursday. His spirit had returned in some way, because there was something ahead, there was the court case, there was the beginning of the fight. But watching him in court, that spirit had just departed. He has lost almost 15 kilos in weight. He is isolated, when he walks through the prison, the other prisoners are put back in their cells. So that he can't fraternize with them, he is only allowed to talk to people in the so-called healthcare." *MULTIPLE SHOTS AT SOURCE*
SCRIPT
Australian journalist and filmmaker John Pilger said the a British court's decision not to grant WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange a delay to the proceedings and timetable of his extradition hearing to the United States was "appalling" and "preordained." Pilger spoke to RT's Afshin Rattansi in London on Tuesday.
"It was an atrocious event," Pilger said of the hearing on Monday at the Westminster Magistrates court, calling District Judge Vanessa Baraitser "biased."
Pilger said the decision to go ahead with the extradition hearing had been determined beforehand "regardless of anything to do with a court, regardless of any defence argument."
"I have sat on a number of courts, all over the world, I've never seen anything like this. It belonged in a show trial."
He went on to discuss Assange's current physical condition, saying the whistleblower had lost 15 kilograms (33 lbs) of weight in prison, adding that he was being "isolated" on purpose.
"When he walks through the prison, the other prisoners are put back in their cells. So that he can't fraternize with them, he is only allowed to talk to people in the so-called healthcare," said Pilger.
Assange completed his sentence for skipping bail on September 22, but remained in jail as a judge believed he could flee before his US extradition hearing.
He is facing the extradition request on espionage charges related to the publication of classified military and diplomatic documents in 2010.