National and international organizations meet this Thursday (23), at 9:30 am, to oppose the extradition of Julian Assange for the United States. The event takes place during the 50th Ordinary Session of the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council to denounce the risks created by the British decision to send the WikiLeaks journalist to American soil – where he could be sentenced to spend the rest of his life behind. of the bars.
Julian Assange, who has been detained in Belmarsh maximum security prison in the United Kingdom since 2019, is accused by the United States of violating the Espionage Act by publishing, between 2010 and 2011, confidential documents revealing war crimes and camps. torture in Iraq and Afghanistan. If convicted, the journalist could face a sentence of up to 175 years in prison.
Participating in the live are Stella Assange, wife, Jennifer Robinson, Assange’s lawyer (from the Doughty Street Chambers Office), Vijay Prashad, journalist (International Assembly of Peoples) and Zuliana Lainez, vice president of the IFJ (International Federation of Journalists). The purpose of the event is to demonstrate opposition to Julian Assange’s extradition and express its severe concerns regarding the journalist’s human, civil and political rights violations.
Read too: Assange extradition decision is ‘press freedom case of the century’
The president of the European Federations of Journalists, Maja Sever, called the British decision to extradite Assange “shameful” and said it would please “the autocrats and the enemies of press freedom”.
Last Friday (17), the UK Home Secretary, Priti Patel, authorized the sending of the journalist to the US. A period of 14 days began to run for the defense to contest the decision, renewable for another 14 days, and then also a period of 10 days for there to be a response to this contestation. A final decision, however, can be taken before this deadline.
Editing: Arturo Hartmann
