Press freedom
Breaking Biden says US may drop Assange case
A genuine indication of sense from US president – or more mind games?
US president Joe Biden has said that the US is ‘considering’ abandoning the country’s attempt to extradite persecuted Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, in response to a request from the Australian government. Assange has been held in Belmarsh prison for years while his legal team attempts to fight a case that should have been thrown out when the main US witness admitted he had been lying when he said that Assange arranged the hacking of US systems.
Last month, the High Court kept Assange in prison when it ruled that the US could have more time to provide assurances that it would not impose a death penalty on the Australian journalist, even though it admitted that the US was attacking his right to free speech in a way it would not do to one of its own citizens.
Before his imprisonment, Assange was effectively kept captive for years in the Ecuadorian embassy when the UK refused to stop trying to extradite him to Sweden, which Assange’s supporters feared was an indirect route to handing him to the US, despite Sweden dropping discredited rape allegations. The US has pursued Assange in vengeance for Wikileaks exposing war crimes by US military.
Last month, the US leaked hints that it might accept a ‘plea deal’ and drop the extradition in return for Assange accepting a lesser conviction – still an outright attack on journalistic freedom and the public’s right to know what their governments are doing. Biden’s latest comment may be more mind games and those who support Assange and the importance of press freedom to a functioning democracy should not let up on their pressure until the case is formally dropped and Assange is free, as he should have been all along.
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Pro-Assange protest grows larger still
Even more people than yesterday demonstrate at Royal Courts of Justice, ready to march on Downing Street against plan to extradite Wikileaks founder for exposing US war crimes
A banner referring to the fact that the main US witness against Assange admitted he had been lying all along
The number of people protesting at the Royal Courts of Justice against the extradition of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has swelled beyond the approximately two thousand who turned out yesterday, despite foul weather:
The US government’s extradition case against Assange should have been laughed out of court when its main witness admitted he had been lying all along, but the courts and UK government have persisted in shoring up what constitutes a global assault on journalism, democracy and the right of peoples to hold their governments to account.
Protesters are now marching to Downing Street, led by PCS public service union’s Samba band.
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If you wish to republish this post for non-commercial use, you are welcome to do so – see here for more.