Four years after Julian Assange was jailed in the UK, pressure is mounting on the US to abandon attempts to extradite the Wikileaks founder. “We are again calling on the US government to close the case and allow the release without further delay,” said Rebecca Vincent, the London representative of the press freedom organization Reporters Without Borders, the German Press Agency. Assange has been in prison for four long years, although he has not been convicted, she criticized. “We are concerned for his safety and well-being in prison where his physical and mental health remains at very high risk.”
In Assange’s native Australia, 48 MPs and senators – including 13 from the ruling Labor Party – warned the Washington government that prosecuting the 51-year-old would set “a dangerous precedent” for press freedom and damage the US reputation. In a bipartisan open letter released on Tuesday, the politicians called on US Attorney General Merrick Garland to “stop extradition proceedings and allow Mr Assange to return home,” British and Australian media report.
“If the extradition request is granted, Australians will witness the deportation of one of our citizens by […] our closest strategic allies – and Mr Assange faces the prospect of spending the rest of his life in prison,” the letter reads. “This would set a dangerous precedent for all world citizens, journalists, publishers, media organizations and freedom of the press. It would also unnecessarily harm the US as a world leader in freedom of expression and the rule of law.” According to the signatories, Assange’s indictment relates to his actions “as a journalist and publisher” in publishing information “with evidence of war crimes, corruption and human rights abuses”.
Similar letters were also sent by British Conservative and Labor MPs, as well as MPs in Mexico and Brazil, according to the Australian Associated Press (AAP) news agency.
The US accuses Assange of stealing and publishing classified material from military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, thereby endangering the lives of informants. Supporters see him as a courageous journalist who exposed serious war crimes and human rights abuses by US soldiers.
Assange had fled to the Ecuadorian embassy in London in 2012 to escape imminent arrest and had spent seven years there until Ecuador revoked his political asylum and the British authorities arrested him in 2019. Since then, the Australian has been in Belmarsh high-security prison. The legal tug of war over his extradition to the United States has been going on for years. London has given the green light in principle for the transfer, but Assange and his supporters are trying to prevent it. UK courts are currently considering appeals against possible extradition.
In the letter to US Attorney General Garland, Australian politicians compare the persecution of Assange to the treatment of former US Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning. The whistleblower had passed on the secret documents to Wikileaks and was therefore sentenced to 35 years in prison. Manning was released in 2017 after then-US President Barack Obama commuted her sentence.
Assange has been “imprisoned in one form or another for well over a decade” while the sentence for the person who leaked classified information has been commuted, the signatories complain. “A clear majority of Australians believe this has gone on for far too long and needs to end. We urge you to end the extradition process and allow Mr Assange to return home.”
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will receive US President Joe Biden in Australia in May and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak at the coronation of King Charles III also in May. meet in London. Albanese could not find a better opportunity to raise the Assange case with his counterparts, attorney Greg Barnes, spokesman for the Australian Assange Campaign, told AAP. “It needs to be a high priority on the agenda of these discussions.” The prime minister could say “this is an issue of broad parliamentary support and concern and public awareness.”
Quellen: Australian Associated Press/”The West Australian”, “The Guardian”, DPA
