0
1
A consular visit and then National Press Club remarks by Foreign Minister, Senator Penny Wong, are the latest positive signs that the current Labor Government is attempting to secure the Wikileaks founder’s release but there is more work to be done.
By Jacquelene Pearson
Foreign Minister Penny Wong shook hands with Jennifer Robinson, legal adviser to Julian Assange, before the Senator gave her recent address to the National Press Club.
During that address Wong said the extradition case against Assange had been dragging on for too long and needed to come to an end.
Wong said there were obvious limits to interfering in the legal proceedings of another country – in this case the US Government’s ongoing efforts to extradite Julian Assange from the UK’s Belmarsh Prison where he has been incarcerated for four years.
Another positive sign from the Australian Government took place in April when Stephen Smith, Australia’s High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, visited Assange.
The Foreign Minister had, according to her Press Club address, asked Smith to check on the conditions in the prison which had been described by other campaigners as inhumane.
The Australian-based campaign to free Julian Assange has many facets – his supporters certainly are not crossing their fingers and hoping the Australian Government will “bring him home”.
On April 11 the campaign dispatched an appeal to the US Department of Justice carrying the signatures of 48 Commonwealth Parliamentarians. As previously reported in The Point, Senator Deborah O’Neill, Emma McBride MP and Gordon Reid MP did not sign the letter.
The letter to the US Attorney General from the Australian parliamentarians stated: “We write to you as Australian parliamentarians from the Government, Opposition and crossbench to call on you to end the extradition proceedings against Australian citizen, Mr Julian Assange.
“The previous US Administration brought charges against Mr Assange for 17 counts relating to allegedly obtaining and disclosing information under the Espionage Act of 1917, and one count under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1968. The charges pertain to Mr Assange’s actions, as a journalist and publisher for WikiLeaks, in publishing information with evidence of war crimes, corruption and human rights abuses.
“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.
“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.
“International experts oppose the continued persecution of Mr Assange, including the former United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture, Nils Melzer, and the Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights, Dunja Mijatović, as well as human rights organisations, various heads of state and parliamentarians from around the world.
“Australian public opinion on this matter is clear. Indeed polling shows that 88 per cent of Australians either support, or are unopposed, to calls for Mr Assange to be brought back to Australia.
“Mr Assange 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. A clear majority of Australians consider that this matter has gone on for far too long and must be brought to a close. We implore you to drop the extradition proceedings and allow Mr Assange to return home.”
In March members of the Third World Forum on Human Rights submitted an appeal on behalf of Julian Assange to the US Department of Justice.
They too expressed their concern about the extradition requested by the United States of America in relation to the journalist and founder of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, “currently on remand in subhuman conditions in the high security prison of Belmarsh, in the United Kingdom.
“Extraditing Julian Assange would set a dangerous precedent for press freedom and the right to access information globally. Not only would it be a life sentence against this journalist, Julian Assange, but it would act as a veiled threat to all journalists around the world who aim to do their job in an honest manner.
“The UK-US Extradition Treaty itself, which forms the basis for this extradition request, specifically prohibits extradition for political offences. The same is true of the 1957 European Convention on Extradition, the 1950 European Convention on Human Rights, the United Nations Model Treaty on Extradition, the Interpol Constitution and other bilateral treaties ratified by the United States of America.
“The prohibition on extradition for political offences is also enshrined in the Inter-American Human Rights System.
“Mr Assange engaged in normal practices of investigative journalism, such as receiving information from sources and then publishing that accurate information which was in the public interest. Charges under the Espionage Act would criminalise these routine journalistic practices, thus being a direct threat to the First Amendment of the US Constitution.
“It was precisely this irreconcilable conflict between these charges and the First Amendment that led former President Barack Obama’s Administration to rightly deny an indictment against Mr Assange because it would criminalise the practice of journalism at its core.
“Mr Assange was arrested on 11 April 2019 and is now one of the longest detainees on remand in the United Kingdom.
“We the undersigned demand a renewed confidence on the international rule of law and that of the United States, by the latter withdrawing the charges against Mr. Assange and ending the ongoing extradition before the UK courts.
“By this Statement we express our full agreement with the view of the Council of Europe, which considers the treatment of Mr. Assange to be among ‘the most serious threats to press freedom’.
“With that in mind, we add our voices to a growing public outcry in civil society, human rights organisations such as Amnesty International, to that of United Nations agencies, the world’s leading media, press freedom associations, medical organisations, as well as most of the political and judicial agencies which have demanded a stop to the persecution of Mr. Assange and to proceed to his immediate release.
“We urge the U.S. Department of Justice to drop all charges against Mr. Assange by relying on the U.S. Constitution itself, on human rights standards recognised by International Law, as well as fundamental humanitarian values, as the life of a journalist is at risk, and freedom of the press and the right to access to information globally are at risk.”
Signatories: Alberto Fernández, President of Argentina, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, Vice-President of Argentina; Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, Nobel Peace Prize Recipient and Honorary President of the WorldForum on Human Rights Argentina 2023; Estela de Carlotto, Honorary President of the World Forum on Human Rights Argentina 2023; Fernanda Gil Lozano, Executive Director International Centre for the Promotion of Human Rights; Mothers of Plaza de Mayo Association, Argentina; Mothers of Plaza de Mayo Línea Fundadora, Argentina; Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo, Argentina; Tristán Bauer, Minister of Culture of Argentina; Horacio Pietragalla Corti, Human Rights Secretary of Argentina; Axel Kicillof, Governor of Province of Buenos Aires, Argentina; Matías Capeluto, Director of Casa Patria Grande, Argentina; Rafael Correa, Former President of Ecuador; Ernesto Samper, Former President of Colombia; Evo Morales, Former President of Bolivia; Pepe Mujica, Former President of Uruguay; José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, Former President of Spain; Baltasar Garzón Real, Former Judge, and Coordinator of Julian Assange’s Legal DefenceTeam; Pablo Gentili, Executive Secretary of the World Forum on Human Rights Argentina 2023; Rodrigo Gómez Tortosa, Adjunct Executive Secretary of the World Forum on HumanRights Argentina 2023; Adoración Guamán, Professor of Employment Law, Universitat de València, Spain…
You can see the whole list of signatories here
What you can do
According to the Assange campaign, “The strategy of people organising together in a group to build the campaign in their town or city is the only way any political campaign in history has been won or waged. This goes for the civil rights movement, labor struggles, the campaign to Free Mandela, environment struggles or the anti-war movement.”
The Point is interested in facilitating such a group on the Central Coast. Please email us if you would be interested in joining or attending a webinar or workshop.
Absolutely deplorable that our three (3) Commonwealth reps on the Coast: Senator Deb O’Neill, Emma McBride & Dr Gordon Reid have completely failed to stand up for an Australian citizen & journalist who has had the temerity to point out that the emperor has no clothes. If we are too gutless to speak up to the USA government on matters which directly affects each & every Australian, why are we party to the AUKUS agreement to subsidise the USA armaments industry when they are an empire in decline?