OAN’s Elizabeth Bolbelding
3:52 PM – Monday, February 19, 2024
2024 independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced. video online and started a petition He called for the immediate release and pardon of whistleblower and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.
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On Tuesday, a judge in London will decide whether Assange has exhausted all appeals in British courts and will also decide whether to extradite him to the United States, where he could be imprisoned for life. be.
Newspaper publisher Julian Assange was sentenced to 13 years in prison for exposing the government’s atrocities and crimes to the public. The WikiLeaks founder is currently in custody and could be extradited to the United States.
Assange has repeatedly exposed corruption in the United States, from torture at Guantanamo Bay to the anti-democratic practices of the Democratic National Committee to the deaths of civilians in the war on terror.
RFK Jr. releases statement Kennedy24.com Regarding the demand for Assange’s release.
“It’s never good policy to attack the messenger,” RFK Jr. said. “The government’s war on whistleblowers has turned heroes into criminals. Only when we come together can we protect free speech. That’s why I urge all Americans to: is recommended. sign our petition We demand an immediate pardon and release from prison for Julian Assange. ”
Additionally, according to RFK Jr.’s website, the independent candidate has vowed that if elected in 2024, “I will.” [RFK Jr.’s] On my first day in office, I will pardon Julian Assange and investigate the corruption and crimes he exposed. ”
RFK Jr. also said he is “issuing an executive order ending all efforts by federal employees and agencies to censor the political speech of Americans.”
The Justice Department has been asked to drop criminal charges against Assange. new york timesfour prominent European news organizations, and many others.
They argue that this type of protocol could pave the way for the subsequent criminalization of other journalists who expose government secrets or possible wrongdoing to the public, even while just doing their jobs. It warns that there is.
The editors and publishers of the five media outlets that have called for Assange’s release are listed below. The Guardian, Le Monde, El Pais, Der Spiegel and new york times. These media organizations initially worked with WikiLeaks to publish a shocking article in 2010 based on private diplomatic cables from the State Department.
According to reports, Mr. Assange had been detained by both Sweden and the United Kingdom since December 2010, when he was arrested in London, England. United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention.
In 2012, after losing his appeal against extradition to Sweden, Assange took refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where a case was filed against him and he was placed under house arrest.
The 52-year-old Australian computer expert was charged in the United States with 18 crimes in connection with WikiLeaks’ publication of hundreds of thousands of classified documents in 2010. He is charged with one count of computer fraud and 17 counts of espionage.
Mr Assange’s lawyer said he could face up to 175 years in prison if convicted. But U.S. officials said the real sentence was likely to be over a much shorter period of time.
Assange and his allies claim he is protected under the First Amendment’s right to a free press because he allegedly used his skills as a journalist to expose wrongdoing by the U.S. military. It is claimed that there is.
Mr Assange’s supporters recognize him as a “heroic whistleblower” who defended democracy against a “surveillance state”.
A long legal battle in Britain ended with him being sentenced to five years in prison and seven years of self-imposed exile in a foreign embassy. Assange’s fight to avoid spying charges in the US may now be coming to an end.
Assange will reappear in a London court starting Tuesday in what could be a final attempt to block his extradition to the United States. The High Court has scheduled two days of oral arguments on whether Assange should be sent across the Atlantic, or whether he can ask the Court of Appeal to block his transfer.
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