Pacific Greens call on President to suspend extradition and issue pardon.
The Pacific Green Party stands in solidarity with Amnesty International and an array of press freedom and human rights organizations, including Reporters Without Borders and Human Rights Watch, in urging the Biden administration to drop the extradition demand in Great Britain and the specious US espionage case against Julian Assange.
At stake in Assange’s prosecution are freedom of the press and whistle blower protections.
Assange, founder of Wikileaks, which published revelations of torture techniques used by the US military in Guantanamo, video footage of a 2007 Apache helicopter attack in Iraq that killed journalists, and secret drone strikes conducted by the US in Yemen, has long been a target of the US Department of State and US military.
"The prosecution of Assange for publishing embarrassing information about US government actions is a threat to every publisher and journalist, a dangerous precedent that would void freedom of the press. If Assange can be imprisoned, so can any publisher,” said Charles Newlin, PGPOR Media contact.
The Pacific Greens call on President Biden to stop the extradition and issue a pardon to Mr. Assange.
Instead, the Biden administration has filed an appeal of a London court decision that denied the US Department of Justice request for extradition. The court did not extradite out of concern for Assange's well being and his capacity to survive in the American prison system.
If extradited and found guilty of espionage, Assange would likely spend the remainder of his life in a SuperMax prison.
President Obama issued clemency to US-born Chelsea Manning, who provided Assange Department of Defense digital files; but the Biden administration is relentless. The prosecution of Assange follows an alarming trend by US suvccessive Governments, starting with the Bush and Obama administrations, to pursue and punish whistleblowers.
“The Pacific Green Party understands that without transparency in government, protection of whistleblowers, and journalistic liberty to print the truth, society can fall into tyranny,” said Newlin. “Without free access to information, we can’t hold people or government accountable; malfeasance will go unchecked; and government and military leaders will act with impunity.”
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