The EU must adopt a « position forte » facing the United States to demand the release of the founder of WikiLeaks Julian Assange, imprisoned since 2019 in the United Kingdom, claimed Tuesday his wife Stella Assange.
“I hope that the European institutions will now adopt a clear position, they now have the legitimacy, through their own Parliament, to adopt a strong position”, estimated Stella Assange, during a press conference at the European Parliament in Strasbourg.
“Courageous people of Ukraine”
Julian Assange was among the finalists for the European Parliament’s Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought. The 2022 prize, which will be officially presented at a ceremony in Strasbourg on Wednesday, was finally awarded to the “courageous people of Ukraine” faced with the Russian invasion.
“Granting him finalist status (for the Sakharov Prize) has shown, from a political point of view, that his case matters to the European Union and to European citizens”insisted Ms. Assange, indicating that the high security prison of Belmarsh, near London, where Julian Assange is detained, had refused to intervene by videoconference.
The 51-year-old Australian citizen is being prosecuted in the United States for having published from 2010 more than 700,000 confidential documents on American military and diplomatic activities, in particular in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Arrested by British police in 2019 after seven years in confinement at the Ecuadorian embassy in London, Julian Assange is currently awaiting the examination of his appeal against the decision of the British government to extradite him. “The decision of the High Court (in London) on the authorization of an appeal is awaited at any time”explained Stella Assange.
“We must be well aware of what is at stake here for Europe: it is the determination, independent and autonomous, of its own conception of freedom of expression and freedom of the press”insisted Virginie Lemarié, lawyer for Julian Assange.
In November, Australia’s prime minister and Colombia’s president joined calls for an end to the charges against the WikiLeaks founder.