UK Resist! – Julian Assange at the Westminster Magistrate’s Court on 29 October 2020

Monika Karbowska

This text deals with the hearing of Julian Assnage on 29 October, but it also contains analyses of the current dictatorship, the power of the Baraitser family and Judge Tan Ikram.

Cafés, restaurants, shops closed by Macron in Paris, empty streets


The dictatorship in France

The date is 7 December 2020. It was impossible for me to write more quickly the story of my last trip to England, from 27 to 29 October, because the fate of our country balances between a new kind of unbridled dictatorship and timid resistance coming from the depths of our individual and collective common sense, our instinct for survival as living beings, what remains of our ideals and our knowledge of fundamental rights.

 Our fundamental rights have been destroyed in a few months, in a few televised speeches, in a few decisions as illegal as they were violent by the Emmanuel Macron sect that holds our country. Our fellow citizens submit before our astonished eyes to injunctions as terrible as they are absurd, such as allowing themselves to be locked up and only come out with police authorisation, torturing 6 year old children for ten hours under a mask that prevents them from developing and breathing, and allowing themselves to be tortured,  under the same mask, in all places up to 20 hours a day. Our fellow citizens accept like a dumb cattle to be cloistered and trained to obey in every nook and cranny of what is no longer a life. They accept that they no longer have the right to freedom, to education, to culture and leisure, to a friendly, social and family life, to be reduced to the life of animals that go to work and return home wisely because their master has decided so. Certainly, the world of 2020 is a new one. It is the world of the open-air concentration camp, awaiting the final solution to the human problem in « the fourth industrial revolution of artificial intelligence » and in the « climate change » already decided by the masters of the world at the Davos World Economic Forum in January 2021 in the form of the « Grand Reset » project[1].

I was scared when I left for London on Tuesday evening, October 27th at midnight with the Flixbus, but I also wanted very much to flee elsewhere from what we are experiencing. After the walk through apocalyptic Paris in zombified Paris, surrounded by people who are no longer human because the mask and fear have objectified them so much, I was quite happy to leave for a country where paradoxically the air is more breathable. In this Paris where restaurants, cafés, shops and associations have been closed down by the authority of a corrupt and dictatorial regime, Parisians were moving around like lost automatons while some of the great bourgeois continued to play the game of covid comedy, a mask of rigour on their faces, coming out of the Printemps or the Bon Marché rebuilt. Too many works mark this Paris empty of real inhabitants: entire refurbished buildings await a new buyer, like the building of the Société Foncière Lyonnaise, formerly the Drouot sales, just opposite the Louvre. Building facades and entire restaurants are being renovated at a time of monstrous economic crisis, the worst since 1945. In the midst of an economic crisis and in the midst of a « coronavirus health » crisis, we have the right to ask ourselves « where does this money come from » and « who benefits from crime », i.e. who is going to monopolise these magnificent plots of real estate in the heart of the most beautiful city in the world emptied of its citizens?

May 2018 – the nice time of the World Marxist Congres in Beijing, no mask and no stress, hope for a good future

I think I have an answer by observing the arrogant youths, dressed in garish clothes of a pseudo « 80s » fashion pseudo coming out of the department stores with bags of major brands in their hands. It’s hard to say, but I recognised this upper middle-class youth as being from China. At least my trip to the World Marxist Congress in Beijing in May 2018 as an accompanist of the great anti-globalization activist Samir Amin allowed me to recognize not only some elements of Mandarin, but also political tendencies at work in this country which is the cradle of the Covidian narrative. Since the sad death of Samir Amin on 12 August 2018, I think that the trend that has taken power in this country « which is actively heading towards a position of superpower » (said Vladimir Putin, speech at the Valdai Forum[2]) is not the « Maoist » trend for which the happiness of China is related to the happiness of other peoples, but the « anti-Western sovereignist » trend which is thinking of its revenge for two centuries of colonisation on the poor  people that we have become over the last 30 years[3]. Our happiness is not on the agenda of the New World Order, as evidenced not only by the participation of the Chinese State in the storytelling of the pangolin but also by the presence of a representative of the Bank of China at the Grand Reset of the World Economic Forum in Davos next January[4]. Jun Ma Jun, chinese Mr. Great Reset comes from the world of finance, he was an economist at the World Bank and 13 years a director at Deutsche Bank. He does not have the CV of a Maoist militant who would fight for the happiness of humanity…

Example of numerous major works in the historic centre of Paris at the time of Covid, here behind the Palais Royal.

I then saw on the liligo.fr website that several dozen flights a day were scheduled between Shanghai and Paris alone for the end of October. Apparently, the greats of this world are not fooled by the narrative of the « second wave » since they come to shop in our beautiful country and maybe inspect the goods to be taken. The alarmist and false discourse of the « overwhelmed hospitals »[5] is the sauce with which the authorities intend to lock us up and punish us for wanting to live normally. This discourse does not touch the globalist bourgeoisie, which is openly making fun of it this Tuesday, October 27, 2020 in the Parisian department stores[6].


[1] https://fr.weforum.org/press/2020/06/la-grande-reinitialisation-un-sommet-unique-pour-debuter-2021/

https://www.weforum.org/centre-for-the-fourth-industrial-revolution/

https://fr.weforum.org/about/leadership-and-governance

[2] https://www.agoravox.fr/actualites/international/article/discours-de-vladimir-poutine-lors-228035

[3] https://histoireetsociete.wordpress.com/2018/05/17/la-chine-au-congres-mondial-du-marxisme-marxisme-et-humanite-une-destinee-partagee-par-monika-karbowska/

[4] https://www.weforum.org/agenda/authors/ma-jun-bc3db90d1f

[5] My movies in the hospital la Salpêtrière in Paris:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2XOX4-xSpVw

https://www.facebook.com/monika.karbowska.31/posts/3574998369233523

[6] Liligo.fr about thirty flights from Shanghai to Paris for November 10th, with 1 or 2 stopovers, it is true, through Chinese cities, prices varying from 500 to 1500 Euros one way. Example: Shanghai to Chongquing then Chongquing to Beijing. The flight to Paris is at 1.30pm on 11th November and arrives in Paris at 5.45pm. The ticket costs 495 Euros which is high but normal.

England undermined but not overthrown

On the overnight Flixbus to London, some families are already fleeing France with luggage and children. They are among those of African origin who already have relatives on the other side of the Channel. They are quite right to leave now, as Flixbus is closing all its routes to England as of 1 November. England appears to be a country of reason that resists the madness. The very fluid border crossing proves it, no « quarantine » certificate is checked, only a man’s fingerprints are taken. At Victoria Station I breathe by throwing away the gag that has never been compulsory here in the street. Certainly, the station crowd is stressed under the mask and the kapos of the private militias are walking the alleys of the building. The lightness of summer has disappeared. But if the people of London are worried, it is because in neoliberal capitalism implacable bankruptcies are already underway: the little Segafredo at Victoria station that I loved so much has already closed, as has the Greek restaurant in the Baywaters district. All the cafés and restaurants are threatened because they have been emptied of consumers since the death of tourism decreed from above by the decision-makers of the ruling global mafia.

One of the cafés closed in Baywaters, probably went bankrupt.

Orwellian customer tracing has discouraged local consumers who understandably do not want the state to know where you eat and where you go to the toilet. Indeed, when you enter a restaurant, you have to scan a barcode that links to the National Health Administration’s tracking app and records the details of your visit to the establishment. The « Brazil » effect is chilling in terms of our future prospects. However, it is above all the large pubs whose owners are under orders that obey and make the customers obey this sinister and Orwellian trade (the equivalent of the large Parisian brasseries that accept curfews and confinements – closures because they have to collect good cheques for large, highly visible renovations[1]).

However, I easily manage to avoid the tracing in small boxes looking for the customer and above all I learn from a French friend in London that the famous application is by no means obligatory contrary to what the media would have us believe at the orders. Just as in France, where the authorities make us believe in the legality of a totally illegitimate « state of emergency »[2], in England certain institutions have been infiltrated by the « covidian globalists ». These want to make people believe by the force of media storytelling that the intrusion into their private lives is legitimate, while the government is making commendable efforts to keep life normal and the laws legal. Indeed, the National Health Administration is in the hands of City financiers and the Soros, Rockefeller, Ford, Gates and Tavistock and Portman Foundations, which played a historic role in the Mkultra-style mental manipulation programmes developed by American and British intelligence agencies. Many managers of the venerable British NHA system are employed in the big private capitalist companies and the all too famous Imperial College of London, epicentre of Covidian paranoia and agent of the imposition of the Global Reset agenda, is integrated into the power system of royalty[3].

Even my friend on the radical left admits that her organisation supported the first containment but that the second is a measure to train for political submission. She also tells me that many people in Britain find the sobs of medical staff about « overcrowded hospitals » exaggerated. I await the brave people in France who will reveal the same trickery, whereas I myself noticed the emptiness of the emergency rooms at the Salpêtrière hospital on 20 and 30 October, at Lariboisière on 23 October, and on 31 October in 94. Empty emergencies don’t mean that the citizen is well treated, just that the medical staff doesn’t fear the contagious disease as in the « first wave » and receives the covid and non covid mixed together. It is important to note that 10 people in a waiting room is not an overload, or there is no real hospital anymore, just a façade and a building for sale.

Children playing football without masks in Hyde Park

I enjoyed escaping the confined air of Paris by walking with my nose to the wind in Hyde Park, on the side of Kensington Palace, the castle of the « royal children » where Diana Spencer lived, in the embassy alley, the closest one to the palace being the residence of the Russian ambassador, A legacy from the time when Alix of Darmstadt Hesse, sister of Victoria of Darmstadt Hesse, who was brought up in Kensington by Queen Victoria of Saxon Coburg Gotha, became the last empress of Russia when she married Nicolas II of Romanov. All in all, the castle of the « Queen’s children » guarded by British service officers armed with machine guns seemed to me to be a sinister prison where the descendants of royal dynasties lead a life of hostage-taking deprived of the freedom to come and go of normal British citizens!

Kensington Palace, residence of the « Queen’s children » – here the only part allowed to be photographed. The rest is sinister behind high walls
Cafés in the north of Kensington Garden opposite the Princess Diana Memorial

Arriving in Paddington opposite the St Marys Hospital and the Frontline Club, this time open when it was closed all summer, I entered my hotel in the formerly tourist district, now in the grip of a frenzy of construction and property development, which one wonders, as in Paris, who will be the real beneficiary.

Russian Embassy, north of Kensington Palace, next to Diana’s Memorial at Bayswater Road
Baywaters and Paddington

I have a meeting near London University, a huge campus in the centre of London, close to the huge Saint Pancrace station where the Eurostar, British national trains and many underground lines open up. A year ago we had a good time together with militant friends in the pubs full of young people in this lively area. Today, I fully feel the catastrophe of Covidian politics: the neighbourhood is deserted, no students. The faculties are closed, the young people are sent back to their computers. Around Russel Square, no light, even the streetlights are turned off, probably on purpose to create a surrealist twilight atmosphere in the centre of the largest megalopolis in Western Europe. The entrance to the Senat Library, the large university library where we spent some time researching and were a studious beehive, is deserted. A threatening sign indicates that security guards have the right to forcibly remove any suspicious person from the University grounds, covid oblige.

 Creating a nighttime atmosphere to frighten humans was one of the Nazis’ strongest methods. It is not for nothing that they named one of their crimes « Nacht und Nebel », Night and Fog, to signify that their victims, the murdered and deported would be forever swallowed up in darkness. But thanks to the Resistance fighters, it was not so. Today let us not be afraid of this Night, it is only a psychological operation. The elites of the University of London do not belong to the Resistance to the globalist dictatorship of Covid, since it has suppressed real education and emptied the district of its economic and social life. But it is not sure that the British government agrees with them.


[1] I know some of them personally and we all know that this is true. The first restorer who will denounce the swindle will be the first honest Resistance fighter…

[2] The Constitution of the Republic, where no « state of health emergency » is included, should be reread as a matter of urgency, and only a one-month « state of exception » is tolerated in the event of « threats to institutions ». It cannot be said that the poor masked people are a threat to the « institutions »…

[3] Tavistock Institute

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Rawlings_Rees

Kurt Lewin

https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurt_Lewin

Tavistock relationship

https://tavistockrelationships.ac.uk/about-us/our-history

https://tavistockandportman.nhs.uk/about-us/governance/board-of-directors/

Imperial College of London

https://www.imperial.ac.uk/people/neil.ferguson

https://www.imperial.ac.uk/medicine/about-us/faculty-leadership/

https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Projet_MK-Ultra

The Baraitser family – gender, sexuality, psychological theatre and genetics

I walk to a small building at the entrance of the University, the Birkbeck College of Psychosocial Studies. Here Lisa Baraitser, professor of psychology, gender studies and maternity, clinical psychologist and psychotherapist[1], teaches and receives her students. There is light on the first floor but the pavilion is closed. It is unlikely that Ms. Baraitser, who has to teach at a distance, will be in her office and receive students at her office. Ms. Baraitser participates in the covid madness by co-leading a monitoring programme on the « effects of isolation on the mental balance during covid time »[2]. The human guinea pig doesn’t seem to bother these intellectuals, who at no time are concerned about what the people will become and don’t denounce the dictatorship.

Mrs. Baraitser Lisa Baraitser looks like a twin to Mrs. « Vanessa » Baraitser, whom I have seen 19 times since 21 October 2019. I have listened to her, her tone of voice, her diction, her vocabulary, her flow, her way of speaking, all the more so as as a foreigner I need to immerse myself in her English to understand everything. I observed her physical appearance, her height, her black dresses, her posture, her face, the expression on her face, her eyes… I observed the lectures of Mrs Lisa Baraitser available on the internet. I concluded that Lisa and Vanessa may be one and the same person.

Judge Baraitser in August 2020

How is this possible?

Judge Baraitser appears at Julian Assange’s hearing on 21 October and conducts all the trial hearings until 1 October 2020. She continuously violates the fundamental rights of the prisoner Julian Assange and violates the fair trial procedure.

She is allegedly a magistrate judge appointed by the Judicial Appointment Commission. Her name appears on the list of District Judges on the UK Department of Justice website www.judiciary.uk. The problem is that there is no first name on this list in front of the surname Baraitser who was appointed as a judge in 2011[3]. The judge I have observed 19 times since 21 October 2019 never shows up in the courtroom. She is never introduced by name by a bailiff. Her name does not appear on the public documents posted in the courtroom on the doors or on the notice board. Her name does not appear on a display in the courtroom. As a result, the public has no official information about the name of the judge in this trial, which is problematic.

The first name « Vanessa » was given to the public by the press present in room N°1 of the Westminster Court during the first hearing at which we were able to see Julian Assange physically, on 21 October 2019. Since then, this name and surname has been propagated and broadcast thousands of times by the media and by activists – including by myself because I had not yet understood at the time how the media can lie shamelessly, even the media we believe to be friends of our cause!

But there is no proof that this person is called « Vanessa ». Looking for information on the Baraitser family, it is very easy to find information on Lisa Baraitser, a public figure and teacher at the University of London. Lisa Baraitser has also lectured in Germany and her book on motherhood from a feminist perspective « Enduring time » has a preface by the famous feminist gender theorist Judith Butler.

But Lisa Baraitser also runs a theatre company, the Pur Theatre, registered in the company register under the number 02930096. This theatre does not employ any staff and does not bring in any money, but still has a business. Ms. Baraitser became one of the directors in 2006 and has been managing director from 2015 until today.

Lisa Baraitser and Simon Bayly the owner of the Pure Theater

However, the theatre was founded in 1995 by Dr. Simon Mark Goodenough Bayly, who is the director until 2015. From 1995 to 2015 Simon Goodenough Bayly ran the company with Sara Holloway, Kate Stratton and Andrew Pulver who is a journalist for The Guardian. Andrew Pulver was a partner of Simon Bayly at the very beginning of the company in the 1990s. This theatre is defined as « a psychological experience » and as « psychological therapy », the financial documents also mention a dimension of « psychotherapy and adult school »[4].

Witnesses have always perceived Julian Assange’s hearings as plays in which perverse psychological violence is staged and implemented on the spectators as well as on the actors of the « play » in the « court ».

Lisa Baraitser can play the role of Judge Baraitser. She has the right social position to be appointed as a magistrate judge since it is enough to be an honest citizen and to have 26 half days per year to sit in a magistrate courtroom. Moreover, the Judicial Commission favours women and academics to be appointed as magistrate judges. Lisa Baraitser also has the ability to organise such a « play » as she has many years of experience in directing her « pyschological theatre ». If this is the case, what would be her motive for participating in this life-size « role play »? Would scientific curiosity be enough to explain this motive? I find it difficult to understand why a personality whose work is recognised by a leading figure in the feminist world such as Judith Butler would find it interesting to stage the public humiliation of an innocent man. But we also know that in the « Assange affair » women masquerading as feminists played a crucial and destructive role (need we recall Anna Ardin?). In any case, this kind of revengeful enjoyment in the « reversal of roles » is not my feminism. For me being a feminist means working for justice in society and not for revenge or the law of the strongest. Lisa Baraitser is also a director in the Springdale Company Limited N°06968455 created in 2009 to manage a building at 15 Springdale Road in London.

Lisa Baraitser therefore has a life, an identity, an address and owns companies. Vanessa Baraitser does not exist socially, there is no proof of her identity. Only the media repeat the name « Vanessa ».

Simon Bayly and Michael Baraitser owners of the London Medical Data Base in 1998

It is interesting to note that Simon Goodenough Bayly has owned the Pure Theater since 1995 together with Guardian journalist Andrew Pulver, but he is also a partner of Michael Baraitser in the company London Medical Database. Michael Baraitser and Simon Bayly have jointly owned this company since 2001, which is based at 38 Chalcot Crescent Street, Michael Baraitser’s home. Simon Bayly and Lisa Baraitser declare that they live at 1 Cooper Lane Sprindgdale Road, where since 2014 the head office of Pur Theater is also located. Simon Bayly declared in 2007 the same address of residence as Lisa Baraitser at 29 Coate Street in London. In 2013 Simon Bayly moves to 3 Indigo Mews where the Pure Theater is also located, which is also the address of Lisa Baraitser. In 2014 they move the address of the theatre to 1 Cooper Lane. These close links between the personal addresses of the two theatre directors Lisa Baraitser and Simon Bayly may suggest that they are spouses.

Michael Baraitser is presented in some sources as the father of Lisa, Paula, Alexandra and maybe Vanessa, Joel or Saul Baraitser[5] . At the age of 63 he became the founder of this company together with the then 34 year old genetics teacher Robin Winter and Simon Bayly, who was already director of the Pure Theater. Robin Winter, who died in 2004, was Professor of Dysmorphology and Clinical Genetics, a specialist in genetic diseases in children at the Institute of Child Health at the Great Ormond Children’s Hospital, an old and renowned paediatric hospital known as « Peter Pan Hospital ». Michael Baraitser worked with Professor Winter at this hospital. London Medical Database Limited had 288,000 pounds of assets in 2015 but is to be dissolved in 2018. The legal documents do not exactly detail its activities or why it disappeared. According to websites, it sold databases on genetic diseases and birth defects, data on the clinical features of diseases with photos, as well as information on genetic research into these diseases, the genes responsible, their mutations…. The name Michael Baraitser can be found on websites selling information on genetic research. He signs the databases as books that he has written[6].

Baraitser’s name was given to a genetic disease, the Nicolaides-Baraitser syndrome, or Winter-Baraitser. In the second name, we recognize the name of Professor Robin Winter, whose name Michaël Baraitser was the business partner in the company London Medical Database Limited. Michael Baraitser does not appear to have a teaching title or to have been a health professional other than an associate of Professor Winter at the Great Ormond Hospital for Sick Children[7] . Professor Robin Winter, on the other hand, who died in 2004 at the age of 53, was the founder of research and treatment of genetic diseases in Great Britain from 1978 onwards[8]. Michael Baraitser worked with him from 1992 when Robin became Director. Born in 1937 Baraitser was 55 years old at the time and it is not clear what his professional background was before that.

Looking for information about the children of Michael Baraitser we find Paula Baraitser, presented as Lisa’s sister. She is a sexuality specialist and consultant in contraception for adolescents at Kings College Hospital[9] . She is also a shareholder and director of the company SH24 C.I.C., registered under the number 08737119, which sells tests for sexually transmitted diseases to the National Health Administration. Since 2017 she is also Director of the Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare of the Royal College of Obstetrician and Gynecologists. This former health structure is registered as a private company in the register of companies under the number 02804213.

The third sister would be Alexandra Baraitser, artist, gallery owner and art exhibition organiser[10]. Saul Baraitser is also an artist [11]and there is no reliable information about Joel.

Marion Baraitser is said to be the mother of Lisa, Paula and Alexandra Baraitser, perhaps of Joel, Saul and « Vanessa ». She is a playwright, publisher, specialist in South African literature and lecturer in English literature at Birkbeck College, University of London. She is a well-known figure in Jewish theatre. She does not own any companies in her name. In her doctoral dissertation « The Poetic of exile » she thanks her daughter Lisa[12]. In the acknowledgements of her book on motherhood Lisa Baraitser mentions Michael, Marion, Paula, Alexandra, Joel and Saul. This is the only testimony of the links between these people[13]. Vanessa is not mentioned. She does not seem to have any existence other than that of « our trial » of Julian Assange and press articles on the extradition of Alexandre Djouhri, friend of Nicolas Sarkozy and some minor judgments typical of magistrate courts. Is she a real person or a creation of media storytelling?

As for Marion Baraitser, if she is the mother of 4 children (4 daughters or 3 daughters and a son) and the wife of Michael, she must have been born between 1935 and 1948 (because her first daughter Paula would have been born in 1965) and therefore have finished her professional career between 2007 and 2010. In 2018, when her doctorate is due to be defended, she must be close to 80 years old. It is amazing that she has been able to teach at a prestigious university for 17 years without having a PhD degree. Her writings have also been published late, since when her books on refugee children, on Eleanor Marx, on Nawel El Saadawi were published, she must be between 55 and 70 years old. No work was visibly published before the birth of the internet and her career before 1999 remains mysterious.

The Baraitser Family without « Vanessa »

Exactly which member of the Baraitser family is a judge at the Westminster Magistrate Court? What are the Baraitser family’s links with the Guardian community that was so instrumental in Julian Assange’s 10-year smear campaign? Is there a link between the Baraitser family’s visibly close relationship with Guardian journalist Andrew Pulver and Judge Baraister’s behaviour towards Julian Assange? The judge’s conflicts of interest, whatever his first name, deserve to be analysed.

I manage to find an open cafe next to the British Library where the waiters are not looking to trace the covid too happy to have customers. There I meet a French friend to whom I find it difficult to explain the violence we have been experiencing for 7 months. When I go out, the emptiness of this neighbourhood, once full of young people, still strikes me. There are also far too many policemen. On my way back to Paddington I pass the Frontline Club again and to my surprise I see Vaughan Smith sitting at a table on his terrace discussing with a man who looks like a young John Pilger. He doesn’t recognize me. I wonder if I am going to see him the next day at the Westminster, but I am not going to. My hotel is next door to Wilson House, which is a residence of the Imperial College of London, right across the street from the Frontline Club. I understand that the posh clientele of the Frontline Club came from Imperial College of London. The medical and scientific community was closely linked here in this place created by Canadian Broadcasting Corporation journalist John Owen, Al Jazeera UK founder Susan Philipps, BBC journalist Richard Sambrook and Penguine Random House publisher Graham Carlton Green. Documents from the Charity Trust Frontline Club registered in 2005 under number 1111898 clearly show that Vaughan Smith and his Kosovar wife Pranvera Shema are not the initiators of the idea but the managers of a project led by much more influential personalities.

Charity Trust Frontline Club report and financial statement 2015

[1] www.bbk.ac.uk/psychosocial/our-staff/academic/lisa-baraitser

[2] https://vimeo.com/449936919

[3]

[4] www.theatrepur.org/pastprods.html

https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/02930096/filing-history?page=2

[6] https://www.face2gene.com/lmd-history/

https://www.ramex.com/title.asp?id=2937&pid=21963

https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-genetics-of-neurological-disorders-9780192628145?cc=us&lang=en&

[7] https://fre.acousticbiotech.com/severe-forms-baraitserwinter-syndrome-are-caused-actb-mutations-rather-than-actg1-mutations-783532

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicolaides–Baraitser_syndrome

https://www.clingensoc.org/about-us/robin-winter-prize/

[8] https://www.nature.com/articles/5201193

[9] https://fettle.health/clinical-team/dr-paula-baraitser

[10] www.alexandrab.org.uk

www.alexandrab.org.uk/about-ba

https://www.museums.cam.ac.uk/index.php/events/meet-artist-alexandra-baraitser

[11] https://decentrederspace.org/projects/projets/

[12] www.marionbaraitser.com

https://pure.roehampton.ac.uk/ws/portalfiles/portal/1283695/The_Poetics_of_Exile.pdf

https://britishjewishtheatre.org/?page_id=958

English police reclaim Westminster Court

in front of the Westminster Court on 29 October 2020

Despite the tweet announcing the hearing at 2pm, I am at 181 Maylebone Road early in the morning. I cannot give credence to this information, too many lies are being spread in this case. I cannot afford to have come all the way here just to be too late. I am waiting as usual by following on the internet the uprising in Poland and the political situation in France. Exactly at 7 a.m. a French activist whom I know arrives and I am happy to see her and to kill the time discussing with her. The day slowly dawns. Behind us the lawyers for migrants from Eastern Europe start to form a queue with the migrants’ families. At 9 o’clock we are the first to enter. At the gate, the same security guards we know but who are no longer at Mitie’s house. As usual I rush to the list in the entrance hall: Julian Assange’s name appears at 10 o’clock at the top of the list of 16 names – Polish, Hungarian, Albanian, Slovak, there is even an Italian. We find the list on the door of room 3 and we don’t leave the railing that frames this door. We also find the Indian clerk and the black secretary in hijab who were in charge of the Assange case from October 2019 to February 2020. They go in and out, seem bored as if they wanted to get rid of the hot potato that clutters their rooms. Then the clerk speaks with two men who seem to be journalists. I approach them. For Julian Assange, the man says to come back at 2 p.m. and that there will only be 3 places for the press and 6 places for the public.

In front of the Westminster Court on 29 October 2020

But we don’t believe it until the hearings have started. An elderly woman comes to ask us about Julian Assange’s hearing – activists have started the demonstration in front of the door, there is also a German friend of mine. A corpulent man with glasses sits in front of us and tries to convince us to come back at two o’clock. I may have seen him before, but with the masks you can’t recognise people’s faces any more. The elderly activist also has doubts and instead of leaving asks the man who he is. I don’t understand the name he is saying, so I ask to see his badge, a simple badge like a Westminster Court visitor’s badge. The name on it is Stephen D Toddhunter. He says he is an employee of Julian Assange’s legal team. Another different name… We thank you for the advice… and we stay. At 10 o’clock I see a policeman arriving in front of the door of room 3. He looks like a real policeman, with a uniform and handcuffs on his belt. On his badge is written « Constable Geary ». This is the first time I have seen a real English policeman in these places. Until now it was the agents of the private multinationals Serco and Mitie who were guarding Assange. Moreover I remember the expression of fear on his face in front of some guards, on January 13th here.

Constable Geary is very nice to us. He looks at us and says, « Yes, it’s two o’clock. But come back at 1:30, you’re going in. Ask me, my first name is Scott ».  I am glad to see some humanity at last and relieved to see that the real British power has decided to appear in the Assange case, up until now we have mostly been dealing with private surveillance companies. Wikijustice’s eleventh request for the release has also certainly had its effect.

Work on the disused Church Army building adjacent to the Westminster Court House

So we’re going out more quietly, even though we know that we shouldn’t go too far away so as not to lose our place. I chat with friends in the demonstration for Julian and then we go to the « lawyers coffeshop ». Adjacent to the public building of Westminster Court, the former disused building of the Church Army is finally under construction. The  » Mina Palace « , its dingy annex where Chinese refugees live, is still inhabited. A little later I will see the face of an Asian child in the window of the hostel. I remember the cars of the Chinese embassy which have a car park under this building whose use is really strange. At the « Lawyers coffeshop» the staff is always very nice, but they are Kurdish or Turkish boys, they are not the same waiters as in the summer. Have they been fired because of the covid crisis? Has the owner changed? In any case the offer is less but the prices are lower. We talk for an hour, but at 11.40 it is good to go back to court.

The Mina Palace, a home for Asian families adjacent to the Westminster courthouse

When we arrive in the waiting room, I lose a little time because a security guard at the entrance wants to take my camera away from me. The waiting room is full of Poles and their lawyers. The hearings follow one after the other. The future extradited don’t look worried and feverish. Apparently the Brexit is a good deal for them because even if the European Arrest Warrant continues to work, England has decided to keep its migrants useful. I also have the impression that Assange’s hearing is postponed until the end when there will be nobody left. A young blond man presents himself as a representative of Reporters without Borders and speaks a little French with us.

At 1 p.m. G. the activist-who-is-always arrives and positions herself immediately in front of the door. We made a mistake when we sat down, we lost our precious first place! I’m not happy with myself, I stand up after greeting G. who asks me if Stella Morris or John Shipton are there. They are not there but if they come we are cooked because the organizers of the audience are going to put them before us and with 6 places we won’t be able to go back home because we are already 5 whereas we have been here since 6 o’clock in the morning! And Constable Scott is unfortunately not present, even if I keep hope. I am trying to convince the RSF representative to take a journalist’s seat to free up the precious seats in the public gallery. But he is not sure he has the necessary press card.

We still have a lot of time ahead of us, so the conversation is moving on to our respective countries. I get a little irritated when I try to explain the deaths of the Great March confinement, the doctors who were not working, how we almost died degradingly ill at home… The lies about the tests, the curfew and what’s coming up again. I find it hard to make the British understand what we are going through. It’s as if they don’t believe me because the situation is very different here. In any case, the totalitarian nature of what we are experiencing, the zombification by compulsory masks, all this is unknown here, even if in England the profusion of private militias in the metro and in the streets is greater than in the summer.

The time is fast approaching and 2pm. Rebecca Vincent from RSF arrives and takes up position behind G. of authority, the young man having heated his seat for her. I can’t object but when an unknown security guard in navy blue uniform arrives and asks who is first, I immediately introduce myself and say that I was here first thing in the morning. The waiting room is emptied, in front of room 1 the last migrants are finishing their business. Tension is rising. An elderly activist apostrophe the security agents on the theme of « who decides » who decides who will enter the room? Indeed everything is rushing. John Shipton appears. The security guard opens the door of room 3, brings in 4 journalists with the orange « press » coupon. The black woman, a former security agent of Mitye who has always worked on the « Assange case », takes over the command. She asks who is for Assange, brings in John Shipton. Immediately afterwards I go back to the known places.

The best seats in the middle of the public gallery have been condemned, so John Shipton must sit in the back of the front row. There is only one roughly central seat left with two seats to his left where I sit. The French friend is behind him, G. to my left two seats further on, Rebecca Vincent behind me and the last elderly activist at the back by the door.

Exit Baraitser and her theatre?

The artificial staging is immediately obvious to me, you get the impression that no one is making any effort to make the play credible anymore. The clerk and the secretary sitting in front of me are playing their game. They are the real Westminster staff, they weren’t at the Old Bailey or the Woolwich Court, I’ve seen them at hearings of other cases besides Assange last year. I feel they are fed up with the game. Edward Hamilton Fitzgerald arrived with Gareth Peirce’s assistant. Journalists are seated in the back row in the courtroom behind the lawyers. That’s when I notice that it’s after 2pm and… Julian Assange is already on the video! The screen was already on and everything is much more informal than before. There is no « Officer Belmarsh » announcement, nor a « HMP Belmarsh » sign above the captive’s head. Unfortunately I can’t see anything on the right screen is too close while the left screen is far away from me. Also, the picture only shows half the screen, so it is as small as the Old Bailey. I’m annoyed, they don’t even look after the decorum any more.

Julian Assange is sitting on a brown or dark red sofa. I look at him attentively. His white hair is a bit long, I can’t see enough of his face to tell if he has a beard or not, nor what his eyes look like, nor the expression on his face. So I concentrate on his gestures, I soak them up. He is wearing a brown jacket that doesn’t fit well and a grey jumper. You can only see him up to his waist. His hands are folded in front of him, his head down. In the room during this time the microphones are being tested for the telephone conference link which never works. John Shipton looks at Assange impassively.

I observe Julian Assange’s gestures. He looks to the right while turning his head. He yawns. Then he runs his hand through his hair as if he wanted to comb his hair. He takes out his glasses and puts them on his nose. He holds a sheet of paper in his hand and goes through it. A young prosecutor arrives and greets Edward Fitzgerald. The two men even shake hands and enter into a rather loud discussion where there is talk of a deadline for documents. The secretary speaks with a young woman interpreter from Slovakia or Poland who comes to register with her. I still look at Julian Assange and 10 minutes go by. I think his gestures are sharper, more natural than the previous year, in November-December when he was visibly under medication. He seems more at ease when he reads, writes or touches his face with his hand… I recognize the particular grace of his gestures, the one that characterizes him when he is in shape. I ask John Shipton if he can see the image well because I am afraid that from where he is sitting he cannot perceive much. His answer is inaudible.

Then I notice that the back door is half-open to a light. The clerk goes out and comes back, followed by… two judges!  The one who will play the role of judge is a rather imposing man with curly grey hair, possibly of Indian or Pakistani origin. I remember that he was the judge for the afternoon of January 13. Next to him a slim young woman is wearing a black dress and a Pakistani style hijab. She drops the veil on the back of her chair when she sits down. So everything goes very fast. The hubbub at the beginning of the hearing subsides and Fitzgerald asks for his deadline for the submission of evidence. If I understand the rapid dialogue, the deadline of the 16th is extended to November 26th. The judge sets the date and the prosecutor agrees to what had been agreed in advance anyway.

Suddenly Edward Fitzgerald seems to realise that Assange should be asked for his opinion. He asks the judge to make sure that Mr. Assange has understood: he even turns a little to the video where Julian Assange is standing. The judge seems to be even more fed up than the other actors in the courtroom, he turns to Assange who, as if mechanically pronouncing « Julian Assange » and « 3 July 1971 » in a hesitant voice. His voice is very low, but it must be said that I am very far from him… The judge says distinctly but still with this air of wanting to finish « you remain in custody » until November 26th. He adds a sentence about an online conference with Assange. Then everyone gets up, the journalists, the secretaries, and rushes out. John Shipton and Rebecca Vincent also leave.

I’m staying as long as Julian Assange is still here. Then lawyer Fitzgerald seems to remember that something is still missing. He asks the judge « can you make sure that Mr. Assange has heard »? He turns to the video, the image of which remains frozen. Julian Assange is no longer online. Then his lawyer leaves the room. I am upset by the theatre, I leave the box and go straight to the judge and his collegue. I have the impression that they are looking at me a little ironically. When I arrive 2 metres from the stage, I introduce myself, I say that I represent a French human rights association and that I haven’t understood what’s going on, what online conferencing is all about. The man calmly answers me that the « call over hearing » is every 28 days because we can’t keep anyone in detention any longer. OK, but what about the online conference that will take place now? He replies that it is just a private meeting between the accused and his lawyer. I thank him but before leaving I ask him if I can have his name because I have to make the report for my association and no name of the person in charge is posted anywhere.  He nods and says « we’ll tell you ». I go out to talk to the activists, always in my emotions.

Tanweer Ikram, a judge with immigration background but close to the power

A few seconds later the secretary opens the door and calls us back: she dictates the name of the judge, Tanweer Ikram. I note but too late I notice that I forgot to ask the name of his colleague in the black veil. Emotions always play tricks on us, but we are human.

Tanweer or Tan Ikram had been a solicitor since 1990, appointed magistrate judge in 2003 by the JAC, the Judiciary Commission, then district judge in 2009 and senior district judge in 2017. Of Pakistani origin and from a working class family, Ikram considers himself an immigrant who has succeeded in the system through hard work. The Pakistani community in Britain praises him as one of the 101 Pakistanis who count[1]. Looking at his CV it is clear that his position is of course above that of Judge Baraitser. But above all his decisions have been criticised as favourable to multinationals and political power: London taxi drivers (many of whom are Pakistani and Indian) have severely criticised his decision to extend Uber’s licence even though a gigantic fraud had been discovered[2]. The media reported that Emma Aburthnot’s husband Emma Aburthnot, Chief Magistrate and Senior District Judge, a professional judge who supervises the work of non professional judge Tan Ikram, was a beneficiary of Judge Ikram’s decision because he is linked to a Qatari fund which is a shareholder in the Uber company[3].

Furthermore, and importantly, Judge Ikram appears to be close to the British and American military-industrial system: he was a judge at the Sovereign Area Base, the British military base in Cyprus. This base is the centrepiece of the telecommunications and intelligence surveillance system in the eastern Mediterranean. Located in Akrotiri and Dhekelia, this extraterritorial base is a colonial territory and as such the Cypriot people are fighting for its suppression. Moreover, it is on this base that the global monitoring system for satellite telecommunications, and therefore mobile phones and the internet, ECHELON, is installed. This global communications surveillance system is run by several American intelligence agencies, including the CIA, and its presence on European soil has no legal basis. It is an illegal installation denounced by the journalist Nicky Hager who testified before the European Parliament in 2001[4]. However, despite these revelations, still being pursued in 2015 by Edward Snowden, ECHELON is still continuing and serves the interests of the ruling castes in our Western states.

For Julian Assange, with Judge Ikram, we are certainly leaving the field of experimental psychological theatre dear to the Baraister family, but we are entering international politics. Judge Ikram’s links with the agencies of British and American imperialism and the intelligence agencies of these two countries which manage the base in Cyprus make me doubt his ability to conduct a fair and objective trial vis-à-vis Julian Assange. Especially since he is controlled by Judge Arbuthnot[5] . His attitude of exasperation at our presence could be linked to the fact that we are still there and we are not letting go of the Resistance in the face of this oppression which of course strikes Julian Assange in the first place, but which is rapidly spreading throughout European society. « If Julian Assange launched this last appeal on April 11, 2019, we realise that today[6]!


[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tan_Ikram

https://www.101pakistanis.com/civil-servants

https://www.judicialappointments.gov.uk/case-study/tan-ikram-district-judge-magistrates-court

https://www.lawsociety.org.uk/campaigns/social-mobility-ambassadors/ambassadors-2015/tan-ikram

[2] https://www.forbes.fr/business/uber-gagne-une-bataille-decisive-a-londres/

[3] https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/aug/18/uber-judge-steps-aside

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/feb/13/uber-chief-magistrate-alleged-bias-raised-in-court

https://www.litigationfutures.com/news/high-court-rejects-bias-allegation-against-uber-licence-judge

[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akrotiri_and_Dhekelia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ECHELON

[5] https://www.judiciary.uk/about-the-judiciary/who-are-the-judiciary/judicial-roles/judges/chief-magistrate/

[6] https://www.republicworld.com/world-news/uk-news/uk-must-resist-a-dishevelled-julian-assanges-final-warning-as-he-was-evicted-from-ecuadors-embassy-in-london-and-taken-into-custody.html

UK Resist, France Resist!

Before leaving the premises, I observe the following events. Edward Fitzgerald locks himself in the consultation room at the end of the corridor with Stephen Toddhunter. I don’t know what the role of this man is, but I am there to express our displeasure that Julian Assange was only visible on half a small screen. How can we, a human rights association, estimate his presumed state of health if we cannot even see his face? My request is kindly formulated, the man responds in such a convoluted way that I don’t understand it at all. His eyes are as if hypnotised. Faced with the bad faith that I’ve been encountering from the officials of Julian Assange’s legal team for a year now every time I ask a question about the irregularities of the trial, I don’t insist and I go out to meet my friends whom I haven’t seen since September and who are now taking part in the demonstration.

In Café Panache St Michael Street , Paddington

We leave the premises together among Francophones and head towards Paddington. The Frontline Club is illuminated, we sit at the Café Panache facing the corner of Norfolk Place and St. Michael Street – the archangel protector who defeated the devil as my friend John points out to me. This little cafe makes great cakes and was my headquarters in the summer. The atmosphere is very friendly, no masks or tracing requirements. We discuss at length, notably the almost christic dimension of Julian Assange’s story, his uncertain identity and the disappearance of Sarah Harrison that I still cannot understand. I can’t help but deplore what is happening in France. Dictator Macron has just imposed a new confinement, a new house arrest for all French citizens who allow themselves to be taken advantage of. The political tension is rising, I am afraid that I will no longer be able to cross the border and come to the hearing on 26 November.

We sympathize with the Maroccan boss who speaks French. He deplores the economic destruction of the district since last March, the disappearance of the tourist clientele and the appearance of criminality due to the desertification of the streets in the evening. I learn that the small Yugoslav Fish And Chips in front of the Frontline Club has been robbed… But above all he recalls the prosperous years of 2010 when « Julian Assange lived there » and every time he appeared, a dense crowd of photographers and journalists crowded in for the event and stayed in his café because of lack of space at the Frontline Club. Julian Assange was like a movie star who attracts a huge audience and whose appearance is always beneficial to local shopkeepers. The man points to the building at 30 Norfolk Place, right next to the Fish And Chips – Julian Assange would have lived there on the top floor and he had seen it. These plots, as well as 15 Norfolk place next to the Frontline Club where the Charity Trust Fronline Club premises are located in the courtyard, are owned by Paul Economou, a major Greek property owner in the area. I tell him about Westminster Court, Julian Assange is still a short distance from here in some ways but not at all in the same circumstances.

In Front of the Frontline Club after the hearing

Then my friend rushes outside as she noticed John Shipton tapping on his phone standing on the terrace of the Frontline Club. The Frontline is illuminated, but the customer is rare and the beautiful brunette manager with short hair and visibly Yugoslavian origin who ran the restaurant until last March has disappeared, replaced by a young red-haired man, perhaps Mario Armani, who has been Vaughan Smith’s business partner since last year. It is then that a taxi arrives from which Gabriel Shipton comes out looking a little lost. On the other side of the street I recognize a man who has been the centrepiece of communication around the Old Bailey: Nils Ladefoged is funded by the Democracy and Media Foundation[1], a major funder of the Center for Investigative Journalism. It is not surprising that he is so present in the storytelling of the Wikileaks project, since today Joseph Farell, « Wikileaks ambassador », runs the Center for Investigative Journalism Limited (registration number 05471322) and the Charity Center for Investigative Journalism. Both structures are headed by a Bureau for Investigative Journalism, itself part of a Bureau of Investigative Journalism Trust. These nesting doll structures were all created by Elaine Potter, a South African oligarch who funds these organisations and a host of others through her Elaine and David Potter Foundation.  A young brown boy sits in the taxi. We greet Gabriel and John Shipton who get into the taxi with Nils Ladefoged and leave. We finish eating and it is time to part. We hug each other and the emotion is so strong that we are so apprehensive about what the future holds for our countries and our lives in turmoil.

Elaine Potter, founder of the Center for Investigative Journalism Limited, of the Bureau of the Investigative Journalism, of the Trust of the BIJ, of the BIJ Management….

In Victoria Station I go to my favourite organic cosmetics shop to buy rose oil that is not available in France. I suddenly break down and I tell the saleswomen in my emotion all the horror of what we are going through in France, that I am not sure I will be able to come back… The saleswomen are very nice, they comfort me and talk to me about God with a sincere air. If there is a God, he sent them to me because it gives me the courage to leave, to take the bus in a Victoria Coach Station transformed into an anti-corona fort with signposting on the ground, compulsory mask and all the rest of the hygienic-sectary madness. The bus to Paris is half empty. In an atmosphere of the end of the world, some migrant families are rushing to return to the continent.

The Frontline Club right, behind them the Imperial College of London and the St Marys Hospital
The Wilson House, Sussex Gardens in Paddington, residence of the Imperial College of London

A few days later, Flixbus cancelled its connections to London sine die. The driver is pretty cool, not looking at the mask. The crossing by boat is done without any problem. The British police don’t even check passports on the way out! As a matter of fact, the corona propaganda should not be confused with reality. A poster for the Brexit on a board near the station boasts about the aid that companies will receive from the British state once the delicate operation of separating the ubuesque power of the EU is completed. The picture shows a modern metal factory with busy workers – is this a sign that the new Britain, like « New Jerusalem » after the war, is turning its back on the exclusive economy of financial globalisation and deciding to return to an economy of industrial production? It is still too early to answer, but it is an important signal, because it is the City of London Corporation which like a gigantic cancer is gangreneing the economy of the European continent by engulfing it in a capitalist globalisation that is deadly for the peoples. If the British government has decided to put an end to the power of the City of London Corporation, its interests are also ours. Did the sibylline « UK Resist » of Julian Assange, prisoner of the men of the City, mean this?

At the entrance to Paris, we are greeted by a very long traffic jam made up of gendarmerie cars from all over France who have come to the capital on macronesque orders to wage war on the people. France Résistes – this is our cry today!

(Deepl translation)


Julian Assange with Helena Ann Kennedy of the Shaws, councellor of the gouvernements

Helena Kennedy, Baroness Kennedy of The Shaws – Alchetron, the free social encyclopedia

[1]  https://www.thewhistler.org/interview-project.html

Laisser un commentaire

Votre adresse e-mail ne sera pas publiée. Les champs obligatoires sont indiqués avec *