Supporters of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange organized a “night carnival” Saturday night in London to demand his release from prison.
Around 2,000 supporters of the Don’t Extradite Assange campaign gathered at Lincoln’s Inn Fields near Holborn and marched in front of Parliament Square. The activists were seen carrying lanterns and banners displaying messages in support of Assange, while a carnival drum group marched behind them.
Assange is currently being held at London’s high-security Belmarsh prison, where he has resided since he was expelled from the Ecuadorian embassy in 2019 for violating prison conditions. He had sought asylum at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London to avoid extradition to Sweden on charges that he raped two women. Investigations into the alleged sexual assaults were eventually dropped.
He is facing a legal battle regarding his possible extradition to the US for the publication of classified materials. If he is extradited to the United States, the journalist will face various charges, including espionage. Assange is accused of publishing classified information detailing crimes committed by the US government at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, Iraq and Afghanistan, and revealing cases in which the CIA was involved in torture and rendition.
THE NEW YORK TIMES, GUARDIAN AND OTHER MEDIA CALL US TO END THE PROSECUTION OF JULIAN ASSANGE
Julian Assange supporters walk during a ‘Night Carnival for Assange’ march in London.
Britain’s High Court ruled last summer that Assange can be extradited to the US. He faces a sentence of up to 175 years in a US maximum-security prison if extradited. The WikiLeaks founder filed an appeal with the European Court of Human Rights in December.
Protesters during Saturday’s march were heard chanting “Free Julian Assange” while carrying banners with similar messages.
Assange’s wife, Stella, spoke after the march at a rally at the Emmanuel Center in Westminster.
“We need to keep building until the movement is so big that those in power and the courts realize there is nowhere else to go but to free Julian,” he told the crowd.
Some activists wore carnival costumes for Saturday’s march, while others dressed as prisoners and judges.
The national coordinator of the Do Not Extradite Assange Campaign, John Rees, told the rally that the group decided to organize an evening carnival to be “dramatic” and “bring light to a dark place.”
“Julian Assange has not been convicted of any crime at all, and justice delayed is justice denied,” Rees said. “We, as activists, have a responsibility to ensure that this case does not disappear from public view. The newspapers that collaborated with Assange wrote a joint letter supporting his release, and he is supported by most major security organizations. human rights in the world. This is unprecedented and, in most cases, would be enough to get him released. I hope our action tonight will help put pressure on the UK and US administrations to release Julian Assange.”
JULIAN ASSANGE SUPPORTERS PROTEST AGAINST US EXTRADITION IN LONDON, DC: ‘CRUCIAL WE FIGHT’
Activists pushing for the release of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange take part in a demonstration.
US and European media publishers and editors who worked with Assange in publishing excerpts from more than 250,000 documents he obtained in the “Cablegate” leak wrote an open letter last year calling on the US to release them. US to end the prosecution of Assange. The Guardian, The New York Times, Le Monde, Der Spiegel and El País cited press freedom in demanding that the charges be dropped.
The “Cablegate” material for which Assange faces prosecution was leaked to WikiLeaks by then-US soldier Chelsea Manning, who was convicted in 2013 of Espionage Act violations and other crimes. The documents exposed the inner workings of US diplomacy around the world and revealed “corruption, diplomatic scandals and espionage affairs on an international scale,” according to the media letter.
During the Obama administration, which was in office when WikiLeaks released the documents in 2010, Assange was not charged because the administration would also have had to charge journalists from mainstream media outlets. But former President Donald Trump Justice Department moved to indict Assange using the Espionage Act of 1917.
The CIA reportedly had plans during the Trump administration to kill Assange over the release of confidential agency hacking tools, known as “Vault 7.” The CIA said it suffered “the largest data loss in CIA history” after Wikileaks released the materials.
A protester holds a banner during the Julian Assange procession in London to protest against his continued imprisonment.
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At the time, the agency discussed plans to assassinate Assange in London “at the highest level” of the administration, according to a 2021 Yahoo report. Following the orders of then-CIA director Mike Pompeo, the agency had drawn up “sketch” and “options” of assassinations. The report further described advanced plans to kidnap and hand over Assange and that the CIA made a political decision to indict him.
Assange’s Wikileaks also published internal communications in 2016 between the Democratic National Committee and the then-presidential candidate. Hillary Clinton’s campaign, revealing the DNC’s attempts to boost Clinton in that year’s Democratic primary. Assange has been blamed for hurting Clinton’s chances of winning the 2016 presidency.
