[ By Bobby Anthony ]International non-profit organization of journalists called Reporters Sans Frontieres (RSF) has demanded the immediate release of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, stating that the United States “should cease” its plans to have him extradited from a United Kingdom jail and charge him under the Espionage Act of the United States.In the US, Assange faces a total of...
International non-profit organization of journalists called Reporters Sans Frontieres (RSF) has demanded the immediate release of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, stating that the United States “should cease” its plans to have him extradited from a United Kingdom jail and charge him under the Espionage Act of the United States.
In the US, Assange faces a total of 18 charges, 17 of them under the Espionage Act, which has been increasingly used by the Trump administration to target reporting and whistleblowing on matters related to national security.
“We are alarmed by the current state of Julian Assange’s health, and call for his immediate release on humanitarian grounds," RSF Secretary-General Christophe Deloire stated. “Assange is being targeted by the US for his journalist-like activities, which sets a dangerous precedent for press freedom. The US should cease its persecution of Assange and drop the charges under the Espionage Act without further delay”.
Assange’s extradition hearing is due to begin at the Westminster Magistrates’ Court in London on February 24, 2020. The RSF stated that it is concerned by reports that Assange has had insufficient opportunity to prepare for this hearing, and that his lawyers do not have adequate access to him in prison. Both of these measures violate his fundamental rights and RSF representatives plan to monitor his extradition hearing, according to the RSF statement.
Assange, 48, has been a wanted man ever since his website WikiLeaks published Iraq War logs in 2010 which showed there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
In January 2008, WikilLeaks had posted documents alleging that the Swiss bank Julius Baer hid clients’ profits from even the Swiss government, concealing them in what seemed to be shell companies in the Cayman Islands.
The bank had filed a lawsuit against WikiLeaks for publishing data stolen from its clients, but it dropped the suit after it stirred up embarrassing publicity for itself.
Later, WikiLeaks had published documents from a pharma trade group implying that its lobbyists were receiving confidential documents from and exerting influence over a World Health Organization (WHO) project to fund drug research in the developing world. The resulting attention helped torpedo the WHO project of the pharma trade group.
Incidentally, the RSF has condemned the decision by the United Kingdom Home Office to green-light an extradition request from the United States.
Assange currently remains detained at Belmarsh prison in the United Kingdom, awaiting his US extradition hearing, after receiving a 50-week sentence in May 2019 for breaking bail by seeking refuge at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London in June 2012, where he remained until his removal and arrest in April 2019.
It may be recalled that in June 2019, the US Department of Justice had requested that Assange be extradited on grounds that he “actively solicited United States classified information, including by publishing a list of ‘Most Wanted Leaks’ that sought, among other things, classified documents”.
The RSF has also expressed concerns that leak prosecutions under the US Espionage Act do not adequately protect whistleblowers; since defendants are not permitted to present a public interest defense, and prosecutors need to only show that the leak could have harmed national security – not that it actually did.
The RSF statement has expressed worries that targeting Assange under the US Espionage Act could set a dangerous precedent.