In a new video, a cross-party group of 11 Australian members of Parliament tell the U.S. president that the Australian publisher of WikiLeaks should not be punished for his work and that all charges against him should be dropped.
Australian Politicians Call on President Biden to Drop the Charges Against Julian Assange
MPs and Senators urge the US Government to revoke its appeal of the UK judgement against extradition
In a one minute, 30 second video message to U.S. President Joe Biden, 11 Australian politicians from across the political spectrum have appealed to the U.S. Government to drop its Espionage Act and computer intrusion charges against Australian citizen, Julian Assange.
The MPs and Senators have urged President Biden to take the “opportunity for urgent reconsideration,” following a U.K. court’s decision to deny the U.S. extradition request, rendered earlier this year.
Assange is currently held in HMP Belmarsh, a high security London prison, pending a High Court ruling on whether the U.S. may appeal against the U.K. refusal to extradite. He is detained for publishing activity that won him Australia’s highest journalistic honor, the Walkley Award for most Outstanding Contribution to Journalism.
The Australian politicians warn that Assange’s prosecution threatens journalists worldwide.
Susan Templeman, MP, Australian Labor Party (ALP) said: “Citizens expect us to protect journalists and publishers, not to imprison them for their work.”
Senator Carol Brown ALP added: “The world’s leading human rights and press freedom groups are unequivocally denouncing the charges against [Julian Assange]. And we join them.”
Senator Peter Whish-Wilson, Australian Greens, told Biden: “Australian citizens want Julian Assange to be free.”
Peter Khalil MP, ALP, noted: “Indeed, one of the largest petitions in Australia’s history, with over 600,000 signatures, has been tabled in the Australian Parliament, calling on the US to free Assange.”
Julian Hill MP, ALP, who has spoken in parliament about Assange, appeals to the UK: “We are imploring the British government to release him from prison, and send him home.”
“Reporting on China’s harassment of journalists has never been easy. Lately it’s been getting much harder, which suggests that conditions for the press could be worsening. At least 47 journalists were jailed in China at the time of CPJ’s 2018 prison census and I am investigating at least a dozen other cases, but the details are hard to verify. The reason: authorities are deliberately preventing information from getting out–and they are getting really good at it.
Among the cases I’m investigating are the arrests in December of 45 contributors at Bitter Winter, a religious and human rights news website, who were detained and interrogated for exposing details about Xinjiang’s secret camps; reports from December 14 that police in Tianjin arrested a woman for exposing an outbreak of African swine fever on her WeChat account for the alleged crime of “spreading rumors”; the arrests from 2016 to 2018 by Xinjiang police of at least 30 Uighur editors working for local newspapers and television broadcasters; and the case of a woman who live-streamed police breaking into her apartment and taking her away in August, as an officer asked, “What did you say on the internet?” Information was so scarce on the latter cases, that CPJ was unable to confirm who the journalists were and if they were still detained at the time of our prison census.
By ensuring little to no information is available on these individuals, Chinese authorities are able to prevent widespread coverage and avoid being held to account for their actions.”
(Iris Hsu/CPJ China Correspondent, Committee to Protect Journalists, 12 March 2019)
Give Assange diplomat status and stand up for Australia. Armed Neutrality and no unfettered foreign military bases.
An attempt was made by Ecuador to give him diplomatic status but it was rejected by Britain.
In the pursuance of truth, peace & freedom across the world, PLEASE FREE JULIAN ASSANGE
respectfully
Guantanamo anyone?
The false arrests and detainment of human beings to attest for the New Rome’s illegal war and occupation of the MiddleEast sadly dictates Assange’s fate.
The Media’s silence and complacency is sickening and is functioning like the propaganda machine it always has been.
Only Assange’s release would give us all some sense of transparency back.
I pray these brave Aussies voices are the catalyst for a spiritual awakening.
Thank you for stepping up and taking this stand to free Julian Assange.
The American justice system would rather release Barabbas, I mean Bill Cosby, to us.
Question is, now that their chief witness has CONFESSED to LYING about the part he played in this,what are the Alleged hallowed halls of Justice in the U.K. going to do a bit out it ? Moreover, where does this latest revelation leave our esteemed PM who was crowing about Assange’s alleged guilt ? And, WHY is the Australian media missing inaction on this issue ?
Wheres Albanese? Gutless wonder.
Really, is this the best you can do. Turn it into political opportunism. I would luv to know what you think of the incumbent governments efforts.
Above we see a small group of eleven politicians, small certainly when compared to the overall numbers in the Senate and House of Representatives in Australia, the bag carrying country and number one acolyte of the criminal USA.
I know for a fact that there are more that didn’t make the photo session in support of Julian Assange as one would have expected, but none from the government itself, so careful to always show the Biden bunch their total subservience and support for their hegemonic activities. Australia, after all has been the first in the queue to join the US in its imperialistic wars, a non stop activity since the end of WWII. ‘We’ll be there, just yell’, now having just left Afghanistan after 20 years.
So many reasons for disliking the quality of the Australian government today so an action like this with politicians displaying their respect for the achievements of Wikileaks in making the world aware of the millions who have died at the hands of US wars and ongoing inhumane sanctions, is indeed a pleasing sight.
Well done, all of you honourable Members and Senators. `You have earned your place in history along with the respect of the people of Australia and the decent people throughout the world.
I have written to the editorial boards of the three US newspapers to which I subscribe, The NYTimes, the Washington Post, the Arizona Republic asking them to join in this plea.
The Assange case always seemed more about the DNC emails– Hillary’s loss much more important than anything that happened in the MidEast. Now that the star witness has recanted, what’s the holdup? Even Biden can not be so tone-deaf as to continue torturing a political prisoner?
The Vault 7 release earned Assange the bitter enmity of the CIA.
Biden is NOT going to do anything about it. C’mon now. The demented old mediocrity will wait it out until Assange is dead. That I believe is the gambit. Better off appealing to the Australian leadership, not that they are any better.
Thank you now was that so hard?
WHY IS BIDEN COMPLETELY SILENT ON JULIAN ASSANGE? ????? BECAUSE HE WAS THE VICE PRESIDENT UNDER OBAMA WHO CALLED FOR PROSECUTION ON ASSANGE. HIS ADVOCACY ON HUMAN RIGHT, INTERNATIONAL RULE CONDUCT, ARE HYPOCRISY AND HIS CALL AT G7 MEETING REVEALED HIS INNATE POSTURE OF IMPERIAL RULE .
Julian Assange committed the crime of demonstrating that the king has no clothes. For this crime he will be made to pay as steep a price as the US can extract. Unfortunately, Mr. Assange is in the hands of a US vassal state which has, therefore, no independent agency and can only execute the directions of their master. These legislators are themselves members of a vassal state which is why they, as individuals as opposed to the State of Australia, are pleading with their master state as opposed to the other vassal state that actually has control of Mr. Assange. Good luck with that, guys. You don’t have a snowball’s chance of getting anywhere with the hegemon. It will only be after Mr. Assange dies of legal mistreatment by the British authorities and is elevated to martyr status will the master and his vassals recognize their mistake.
He should never been put in prison in the first place ,he told the truth and because the AMERICANS were found out about the atrocities there troops were committing they had to stop it ,so they triumphed up charges and went to Sweden to get the Liar that was all set up with the Swedish Goverment and the police knew he was Lying .But what does this say about the BRITISH JUSTICE SYSTEM ,
USA IMPERIALISM NOW REPRESENTS THE OLD IMPERIALISTS OF UK ,FRANCE ,GERMANY, AND HAS ENLISTED AUSTRALIA CANADA SWEDEN (NEW ZEALAND SEEMS TO BE RESISTING SUCCESSFULLY). . IMPERIALISTS ARE HIDING UNDER THE COVER OF DEMOCRACY AND HUMAN RIGHTS AND JULIAN ASSANGE EXPOSED THEIR HYPOCRISY WITH TRUTH.
There’s a Australian Tourism, TV marketing Ad that has a young, Blonde, Bikini clad Australian girl proclaiming ”So where the Bloody hell are You”? I’m assuming she was asking about Tourists who might be thinking about holidaying in Australia? But her exhortation should be directed at that gutless Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison whose gone “Walkabout” on the issue of Julian Assange, a Australian Citizen? ScoMo is a cowardly Leader who has been as silent as the grave & uttered nothing in support regarding the inhumane & illegal treatment of Assange & done nothing to obtain freedom for Julian! Maybe he’s been too busy, singlehandedly destroying Australia’s Trade relationship with China just to appease his American Masters & can’t find the time to help Assange? Pathetic!
YOU (KIWI?) HIT SCOTT MORRISON (AMERICAN LAPDOG) RIGHT IN THE BUTT. BUT ONLY 11 MPS AND SENATORS SIGNED THE LETTER TO BIDEN. OVER 500,000 AUSTRALIAN MATURE CITIZENS SIGNED PETITION TO BIDEN TO WITHDRAW PROSECUTION OF JULIAN ASSANGE!!! SO FAR THE USA “FREE PRESS” AND PEOPLE ARE SILENT ON THIS INHUMAN ABUSE.