A clarion call from Brazil for efforts to protect Jullian Assange from 175 years of jail in US

Mobilenews24x7 Bureau

It has gone more than the human tolerance that Jullian Assange has been in incarceration for last several years.

Increasing in age and deteriorating in health Assange has started even losing his mental composure.

Jounalist and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is in fact in a state of debilitation.

Even a forward looking democracy like India, the  Prime Minister has never made such an appeal as a small country like Brazil could.

While the entire leaders of the world maintain a studied silence or a silent apathy at his condition in a London jail, the Brazilian President Lula  Inacio da Silva has given a clarion call urging for the release of the ailing journalist.

He has been categorical in opposing the future extradition of Assange to the United States which triggers the fear about he being put to more grueling torture.

  “I look with concern at the imminent extradition of journalist Julian Assange. Assange has done an important job to denounce the illegal actions of one state against another. His detention goes against the defense of democracy and freedom of the press. It is important that we all mobilize in his defense,” Lula tweeted.

In May, following the coronation of King of the United Kingdom Charles III, Lula called for the early release of the WikiLeaks founder.

Since April 2019, Assange, an Australian citizen, has been held in the high-security Belmarsh prison in London while facing prosecution in the US under the Espionage Act. If convicted, the WikiLeaks founder may get 175 years in prison. On June 13, he is going to once again appeal to the High Court of London to challenge his extradition to the US, which will be the last effort in the British courts, as further hearings will only be possible in the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), according to the Reporters Without Borders non-governmental organization. Assange already appealed to the ECHR in December 2022.

WikiLeaks was founded by Julian Assange on October 4, 2006, but rose to prominence in 2010 when it began to publish large-scale leaks of classified government information, including from the United States.

WikiLeaks founder actively solicited classified information, pushing former Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning to obtain thousands of pages of classified material and providing Assange with diplomatic State Department cables, Iraq war-related significant activity reports and information related to Guantanamo Bay detainees. If convicted, Assange could be sentenced to up to 175 years in prison.

Since then, he has completed a British jail sentence for breaching bail conditions when he entered the diplomatic haven back in 2012 but has remained at Belmarsh as he has engaged in the lengthy fight against his deportation.

In January 2021, a   judge in UK rejected the plea for the extradition to the US ruling that, such a move would be “oppressive” to his mental health.

That decision was overturned by the High Court in December 2021 on the basis of assurances from the US government over how he was likely to be treated if extradited.

Supporters of Assange and human rights groups have long expressed concerns over the US indictment of the WikiLeaks founder, arguing the extradition order undermines freedom of the press.

“It is absurd that a single judge can issue a three-page decision that could land Julian Assange in prison for the rest of his life and permanently impact the climate for journalism around the world,” said Rebecca Vincent, RSF’s Director of Campaigns.