Entities such as the International Assembly of Peoples (AIP), Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil (APIB), Central Única dos Trabalhadores (CUT) and the National Union of Students (UNE), among others, signed a joint public document that calls for freedom to activist Julian Assange.
THE text, forwarded to the diplomatic and consular authorities of the United Kingdom and the United States and to the legal and political authorities responsible for the trial of Assange, highlights that the founder of Wikileaks is imprisoned for exposing to the world civilians killed by “bombs and drones of the American empire ” in Afghanistan and Iraq. The text also asks that he not be extradited to the United States, where he could be sentenced to up to 175 years in prison.
Assange’s detention at Belmarsh maximum security prison outside London turned three years old on 11 April. Before that, he stayed from 2012 to 2019 at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London until his asylum was revoked by then Ecuadorian President Lenín Moreno.
The United States has asked for extradition since the administration of Donald Trump, in a process that continues with current President Joe Biden. The journalist suffered defeats in the British judiciary and, according to WikiLeaks, on April 20 his extradition will be authorized by the justice system. The decision on whether to send Assange to the United States, where he faces charges that could mean life in prison, will then rest with the British government’s Home Secretary, Priti Patel.
“If it weren’t for Assange and WikiLeaks, we would have no idea how many Afghan, Iraqi and Yemeni civilians were killed by the bombs and drones of the US empire, who thought that by killing them in distant lands they would have complete impunity. humanity goes unpunished, Julian Assange suffers a terrible punishment for daring to expose them to the world. The court case against him is an example of the political use of state institutions against the general interest,” the letter reads.
The text also highlights that the purpose of extradition is “to prevent, through terror, the publication of any information that the US government wants to keep hidden, regardless of the author’s nationality, place of publication or public interest involved in the matter”.
Editing: Felipe Mendes
