<story><title>UN Rapporteur on torture: “Julian Assange is a political prisoner.”</title><url>https://www.exberliner.com/features/julian-assange-trial-2020/nils-melzer-assange/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>Traster</author><text>&amp;gt; 17 out of the 18 charges that Julian Assange has been indicted for are for espionage. Espionage is the quintessential, textbook example of a political offence&lt;p&gt;Could someone explain this to me? It seems to me ridiculous to claim espionage is a textbook example of a political offence.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>shoo</author><text>&amp;gt; political crime or political offence is an offence involving overt acts or omissions, which prejudice the interests of the state, its government, or the political system&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; States will define as political crimes any behaviour perceived as a threat, real or imagined, to the state&amp;#x27;s survival, including both violent and non-violent oppositional crimes. A consequence of such criminalisation may be that a range of human rights, civil rights, and freedoms are curtailed, and conduct which would not normally be considered criminal per se (in other words, that is not antisocial according to those who engage in it) is criminalised at the convenience of the group holding power.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; At one extreme, crimes such as treason, sedition, and terrorism are political because they represent a direct challenge to the government in power. Espionage is usually considered a political crime. But offenders do not have to aim to overthrow the government or to depose its leaders to be acting in a way perceived as &amp;quot;political&amp;quot;. A state may perceive it threatening if individuals advocate change to the established order, or argue the need for reform of long-established policies, or engage in acts signifying some degree of disloyalty, e.g. by burning the nation&amp;#x27;s flag in public.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; Because a political offender may be fighting against a tyrannical government, treaties have usually specified that a person cannot be extradited for a political offense.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.m.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Political_crime&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.m.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Political_crime&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>UN Rapporteur on torture: “Julian Assange is a political prisoner.”</title><url>https://www.exberliner.com/features/julian-assange-trial-2020/nils-melzer-assange/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>Traster</author><text>&amp;gt; 17 out of the 18 charges that Julian Assange has been indicted for are for espionage. Espionage is the quintessential, textbook example of a political offence&lt;p&gt;Could someone explain this to me? It seems to me ridiculous to claim espionage is a textbook example of a political offence.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>onli</author><text>Espionage is often used like that. It&amp;#x27;s the charge North Korea, China and Iran use to imprison European or US-tourists and journalists.</text></comment>