The national tour in the United States will begin the day after tomorrow, Sunday 6 June, in Miami, Florida, organized by John and Gabriel Shipton, respectively father and brother of the journalist Julian Assange to support the release of the founder of WikiLeaks, who is still in prison.
With the initiative – which is bouncing on sites around the world – they propose to withdraw Joe Biden’s administration from its efforts to obtain his extradition to the United States and highlight the very serious implications that his indictment would mean for freedom of the press in every part of the planet.
The # HomeRun4Julian tour will touch over fifteen cities throughout June, ending in July in Washington DC. Some events will be streamed on facebook and other social networks; the two also plan to meet activists, journalists and politicians along their way. After Miami they will be in Burlington, Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Milwaukee, Madison, Minneapolis, Denver, Portland, San Francisco, Columbus (Oh), Eastern Kentucky, Oakland, Chicago, Los Angeles and Washington DC. (continues)
In 2010 the UN declared Julian Assange ‘arbitrarily detained’
The Australian journalist’s father and brother will make stops on both coasts and the Midwest of the United States before concluding their trip to the nation’s capital. The request, addressed to the US government, is to drop the prosecution and finally let Julian go home.
“My brother has actually been a prisoner for over a decade because he has published evidence of war crimes,” Shipton said. “The US government wants to make him an example to discourage journalists and whistleblowers.”
Assange’s family members will seek to raise American public awareness of the importance of protecting whistleblowers and journalists and to support the release of Julian, who the United Nations itself has declared “arbitrarily detained” since 2010.