MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 11th August, 2021) The International Federation of Journalists, which speaks for 600,000 journalists in 146 countries, demanded on Wednesday that charges be dropped against jailed whistleblower Julian Assange.
UK district judge Vanessa Baraitser ruled in January against Assange's extradition to the United States, because he would be at risk of suicide, but she said he must wait in prison for the outcome of a US appeal hearing, which began at the High Court in London on Wednesday.
"President Joe Biden must end the years of politically motivated prosecution of Julian Assange by finally dropping the charges against him," Anthony Bellanger, the federation's secretary-general, said.
He argued that criminalization of whistleblowers and investigative journalists "has no place in a democracy" and that condemning Assange would endanger both his life and fundamental principles of press freedom.
Amnesty International and Reporters Without Borders have likewise called for the charges to be dropped. Amnesty said it was up to Biden to do the right thing after Barack Obama gave a go-ahead to the investigation into Assange and Donald Trump brought the charges against him.
Assange faces up to 175 years in prison on espionage charges for leaking sensitive military documents on US war crimes in Afghanistan and Iraq. He has been locked up first at the Ecuadorean embassy in London and then at the Belmarsh prison for 11 years.
