[D66] [JD: 135] Pressure builds for Julian Assange to be released

[R.O.]

Reminder.


standard.co.uk
<https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/julian-assange-julian-joe-biden-wikileaks-belmarsh-b944549.html>



  Pressure builds for Julian Assange to be released

Alan Jones
3 minutes
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Pleas for Julian Assange
<https://www.standard.co.uk/topic/julian-assange> to be freed from
prison are being stepped up amid warnings that the WikiLeaks
<https://www.standard.co.uk/topic/wikileaks> founder is suffering
“severe psychological abuse”.

The United States administration is appealing against a UK court
decision in January not to extradite him, but no date has been set for
the hearing, so Mr Assange remains in Belmarsh
<https://www.standard.co.uk/topic/belmarsh> prison.

His legal team said on Wednesday that permission to appeal has been
granted on a limited basis, allowing only “narrow, technical grounds”.

The case is rotten to the core, and nothing that the US government can
say about his future treatment is worth the paper it is written on.

Mr Assange’s fiancee, Stella Moris, said: “Six months ago, Judge Vanessa
Baraitser blocked the extradition of my partner, Julian
<https://www.standard.co.uk/topic/julian> Assange, because consigning
him to the US prison system would have amounted to signing his death
warrant. That should have been the end of it.

“The case is rotten to the core, and nothing that the US government can
say about his future treatment is worth the paper it is written on. This
is a country whose agents plotted to kill Julian on British soil, who
harried his solicitors and stole legal documents; who even targeted our
six-month-old baby.

“I am appealing directly to the Biden government to do the right thing,
even at this late stage. This case should not be dragged out for a
moment longer. End this prosecution, protect free speech and let Julian
come home to his family.

Stella Moris/ PA Wire

“The current administration admits that the Trump Department of Justice
lacked independence. It seems inconceivable that President Biden would
want to continue with this case – because Julian’s freedom is coupled to
all our freedoms, and no democratic society can ever make journalism a
crime.

“If the Biden Administration does not end this now, the case will limp
through the courts while Julian remains in prison indefinitely,
unconvicted, suffering and isolated, while our young children are denied
their father.”

A group of doctors representing over 250 medical professionals from 35
countries wrote to US leader Joe Biden
<https://www.standard.co.uk/topic/joe-biden> on Wednesday, urging him to
drop charges against Mr Assange under the Espionage Act.

They said: “Mr Assange continues to suffer serious, life-threatening
effects of the psychological torture he has been subjected to for more
than a decade.”

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