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The names of the Central Coast’s two federal MPs and one Senator were missing from an open letter signed by 48 parliamentarians urging the US Government to halt its efforts to extradite Julian Assange from the UK.
By Jacquelene Pearson
The letter was initiated, on the fourth anniversary of Assange’s imprisonment in the UK, by independent MP, Andrew Wilkie, who is also the convenor of the Parliamentary Friends of Julian Assange group.
According to The Guardian Australia, the Labor politicians who did add their signatures to the open letter were: Michelle Ananda-Rajah, Mike Freelander, Julian Hill, Peter Khalil, Tania Lawrence, Zaneta Mascarenhas, Brian Mitchell, Alicia Payne, Graham Perrett, Susan Templeman, Maria Vamvakinou, Josh Wilson and Tony Zappia.
A similar letter was signed by a group of UK parliamentarians. The Australian letter said the US Government’s plans to extradite the Wikileaks founder, who has been incarcerated in Belmarsh Prison for four years set a “dangerous precedent” for press freedom.
The authors of the open letter, who were Labor, Coalition, Greens and cross-bench MPs urged the US Attorney General, Merrick Garland, to drop efforts to extradite Mr Assange, who is an Australian citizen.
The US wants Mr Assange to stand trial on charges related to the release of documents about atrocities in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
According to a report in the English version of almayadeen.net, “If the extradition request is approved, Australians will witness the deportation of one of our citizens from one Aukus partner to another – our closest strategic ally – with Mr Assange facing the prospect of spending the rest of his life in prison,” the letter said.
“This would set a dangerous precedent for all global citizens, journalists, publishers, media organizations and the freedom of the press. It would also be needlessly damaging for the US as a world leader on freedom of expression and the rule of law,” it added.
The letter acknowledged that the allegations – which include 17 counts under the Espionage Act and one count under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act – pertained to Assange’s acts “as a journalist and publisher” in publishing information “with evidence of war crimes, corruption, and human rights abuses.”
The MPs and senators compared Assange’s continuous persecution to that of Chelsea Manning, a former US Army intelligence analyst who was freed in 2017 after Barack Obama commuted her 35-year military prison sentence for disclosing the information.
The letter went on to say that Assange – who initially took refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy in London – “has been effectively incarcerated for well over a decade in one form or another, yet the person who leaked classified information had their sentence commuted and has been able to participate in American society since 2017.”
Mr Wilkie said the 48 federal lawmakers from Australia were representing millions of constituents by working “in concert with similar letters from parliamentarians from around the world.
“This is no small matter and must not be dismissed,” Wilkie said. “Nor should it be ignored that the outpouring of political concern spans the political spectrum and is based on a diverse range of reasons.”
This latest initiative is part of an ongoing grassroots campaign to encourage Australians who understand the importance of press freedom and care about the value of holding in Australian passport to help ‘Free Julian Assange’.
The campaign encourages people to start local groups, sign a petition to the US Ambassador to Australia which has close to 20,000 signatures, write to your local MP or organise a meeting with your local MP.
A note from the publisher of The Point
As the publisher of an independent, local news site, I am often given information by people who need my protection. They are whistleblowers who have witnessed a crime or an injustice but are fearful that if they speak out they might lose their job or worse.
It is my duty to protect those people whilst verifying the information they provide and, if found to be accurate and in the public interest, finding ways to place that information in the public domain.
This is what public interest journalists and publishers do. It is an integral part of our representative democracy that power can be held to account when it is misused or abused.
The ongoing persecution of Julian Assange is one of many examples of how public interest journalists and publishers, around the world, are being intimidated and silenced by governments, regimes and corporations who are doing the wrong thing but don’t want the public to know the truth.
If you care about truth in the public interest then you care about the freedom of people like Julian Assange. If your local MP or state Senator was not a signatory to the open letter, contact them and ask them to join the campaign for Assange’s freedom and the freedom of the press around the world.
The Point will make a point of contacting the offices of the Members for Robertson, Dobell and the local NSW Senator to urge them to support the campaign to free Julian Assange and we encourage you to do the same.
