Demands surge for Britain to free WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange

 

Demands surge for Britain to free WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange

By
James Cogan

22 December 2018

Demands are intensifying for WikiLeaks founder and Australian citizen Julian Assange to be immediately allowed to leave the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where he sought political asylum on June 19, 2012.

Julian Assange

Assange effectively has been imprisoned inside the small building for six-and-a-half years, with the British government threatening to arrest him if he leaves, followed by the prospect of being extradited to the United States to face a show trial on concocted charges of espionage or conspiracy.

Yesterday, legal experts who comprise the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) made a scathing condemnation of the British government. Its press release, issued by the UN Human Rights Commissioner, noted that the UN Working Group had ruled three years ago that Assange was being “arbitrarily deprived of his freedom and demanded that he be released.”

The only charge against Assange in Britain is that he breached bail conditions when he sought asylum. He applied for asylum because the British courts upheld a warrant for his extradition to Sweden, purportedly to answer questions over “suspicion” that he had committed sexual misconduct.

The allegations made against Assange in late 2010 were a manufactured frame-up. They had two transparent aims. Firstly, they were intended to slander and discredit Assange, under conditions in which WikiLeaks was publishing explosive information exposing US war crimes in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the imperialist intrigues conducted by American embassies and consulates around the world. Secondly, the allegations were designed to have the courageous publisher imprisoned on false accusations, and then extradited…

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