US-led plans to extradite and prosecute Julian Assange, the jailed founder of the WikiLeaks whistleblowing platform, are nothing more than a "forced rendition," in which the United Kingdom and Australia are complicit, and sets a "dangerous precedent" for global press freedoms, the current WikiLeaks editor-in-chief, Kristinn Hrafnsson, said on Tuesday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 03rd December, 2019) US-led plans to extradite and prosecute Julian Assange, the jailed founder of the WikiLeaks whistleblowing platform, are nothing more than a "forced rendition," in which the United Kingdom and Australia are complicit, and sets a "dangerous precedent" for global press freedoms, the current WikiLeaks editor-in-chief, Kristinn Hrafnsson, said on Tuesday.Hrafnsson's comments came as he addressed an audience at the National Press Club in Canberra, Australia. The WikiLeaks editor-in-chief said that the current legal process was nothing more than a "forced rendition" made possible "with the enabling of the UK legal system" and "with the apparent support of the Australian government," a transcript from the event published on the Defend WikiLeaks website read.
Australian journalists should push the government to act on Assange's behalf, the WikiLeaks editor-in-chief said. These steps, he argued, would be crucial to preserving the distinctions between what governments consider to be journalism, and what they consider to be espionage.
"You, above all people are able to distinguish between publishing and espionage; a distinction that the US government and its allies seem intent on erasing. And you know as well as I that if they are successful in this, then Julian Assange won't be the last of our colleagues to have his life destroyed in this line of work," Hrafnsson stated.
Last week, a group of 65 UK and international doctors wrote an open letter in which they expressed their concerns over Assange's health. Doctors requested that UK Home Secretary, Priti Patel, approve Assange's transfer from Belmarsh prison in London to a university hospital.
Sweden dropped an investigation which began in 2010 against Assange relating to a rape allegation. However, the WikiLeaks founder is still currently in jail in the United Kingdom, after being arrested on April 11 on a charge of breaching bail conditions. The US has asked for his extradition after he was indicted on Espionage Act-related charges. The whistleblower faces up to 175 years in a US prison if convicted on these charges.
