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On 22 & 24 February Join Global Protests to stop the extradition of Julian Assange
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Julian Assange, founder of WikiLeaks has been charged by the Trump government with "espionage" for conspiring with Chelsea Manning to publish the Iraq War logs, the Afghanistan war logs and State Department cables. While the war crimes revealed by Wikileaks remained unpunished, Assange could face 175 years in jail if he were extradited to the US for doing what any journalist doing his or her job would do. This would set a dangerous precedent for journalists and for anyone the US objects to and wants extradited from any country. For nine years Assange has been demonised by the state and the media with allegations of rape though they never charged him. He took refuge at the Ecuadorian embassy for years, before being forcibly removed and detained in Belmarsh prison in April 2019. Once the US was able to demand his extradition for espionage, Sweden closed the rape investigation. Women Against Rape said: We deplore the way sexual allegations in Sweden were politically manipulated for years towards his extradition to the US. Prosecuting him for Wikileaks’ anti-war journalism would be a grave injustice to us all, including to the victims of rape, murder and other war crimes by US-UK occupiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. Don’t those victims count? He has been kept in isolation, witch-hunted and denied medical treatment. This was confirmed as psychological torture by Nils Melzer, the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture. His health deteriorated so much that, last November, 60 doctors demanded that he be taken to hospital for urgent treatment?
GLOBAL PROTESTS –
see
list We are supporting the call of the Don’t Extradite Assange Campaign to march through London on 22 February and their international call to protest wherever you are on 24 February at the start of the extradition hearings. Organise an action and/or join the protests taking place around the globe! (Initial list below.) Let us know and we will help publicise it. + GERMANY: 100 prominent people support Assange
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We must defend all those punished for disclosing |
SUPPORT WHISTLEBLOWERS AND JOURNALISTS Chelsea Manning the ex-military whistle-blower who disclosed the information published by Wikileaks has been detained since May 2019 for refusing to testify against Julian Assange at a (secret) Grand Jury in the US. In 2017, she was freed after 7 years in jail for disclosing classified information on war and other crimes following an international campaign, especially by the LBGTQ movement. Without Assange and Manning, the US and other governments would continue their criminal activities unrestrained and in secret. |
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More information: Don’t extradite Assange Campaign website Email: office@dontextraditeassange.com Committee
to Defend Julian Assange website Email: JADC@protonmail.ch
___________________________________________________________________________ Circulated by Payday, a network of men working with the Global Women’s Strike payday@paydaynet.org www.refusingtokill.net |
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