WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has won the Solidarity Prize of the Union of Journalists of Russia, a Sputnik correspondent reported on Tuesday from the award ceremony, which is taking place at the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 08th September, 2020) WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has won the Solidarity Prize of the Union of Journalists of Russia, a Sputnik correspondent reported on Tuesday from the award ceremony, which is taking place at the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory.
Assange is currently attending the hearing on whether he should be extradited to the United States, which resumed on Monday at the London Central Criminal Court, after six months of delay due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The hearing is expected to last at least three weeks, and it is highly probable that the verdict will be appealed by the losing side.
"Assange asked to convey the request that the prize, which will be presented to him, be transferred to the families of Russian journalists who died [on duty]," Secretary of the Russian Union of Journalists Timur Shafir, who accepted the prize on Assange's behalf, said.
Meanwhile, the union's chairman, Vladimir Solovyev, recalled that Assange was currently facing real danger as if he is extradited to the United States, he will face either life imprisonment or death.
Shafir, in turn, noted, that the whistleblower's extradition would be a sentence not only to him but also to the freedom of journalism in the world.
Assange was arrested in London in April 2019 and sentenced to 50 weeks in prison for jumping his bail back in 2012 when he took refuge inside the Ecuadorian embassy in the UK capital to avoid extradition to Sweden, where he faced sexual assault charges, and possible extradition to the United States.
Assange is indicted by the US Department of Justice on 18 charges, mostly regarding violations under the Espionage Act, and is facing extradition from the United Kingdom to the United States. If convicted of these charges, the WikiLeaks founder can face up to 175 years in prison.
