Stop cruel and harsh treatment! Free Assange!

OFFICE OF THE CHAIRPERSON

P.O. Box 23402, Docklands

Victoria, Australia 8012

     [email protected]
[email protected]

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The International League of Peoples Struggles( ILPS ) demands that the British authorities immediately release Julian Assange, Citizen of Australia, from a British terrorist prison.

Julian Assange has been unjustly and cruelly incarcerated. He has not been charged with any crime or misdemeanour in Britain and has fully served his time for jumping bail, which he did to avoid extradition to the United States of America, via Sweden. He has also not been charged with any crime in Sweden.

The sole charges against Mr. Assange originated in the US where he is charged with the “publication” of accurate information from “informed sources” and encouraging and protecting a source. These, however, are regular and necessary practices of journalism in a free and democratic society.

Acting as a publisher via Wikileaks, Mr. Assange has in fact done the world a service by documenting the war crimes and other abuses of US Imperialism, as well as other governments, organisations and corporations.

Prosecution of a non-US citizen by the US Government, an Australian citizen who doesn’t live in the US (and has never done so), would be a very dangerous precedent.

Julian Assange is currently experiencing cruel and harsh treatment, being kept in prison without charge by the British authorities, despite his deteriorating mental and physical health.

John Pilger, a well-known and award winning author and documentary film maker, has been observing Assange’s legal proceedings very closely and has described it as a “charade”.

The British authorities are clearly in cahoots with the US authorities in arranging to extradite Mr. Assange to the US where he faces a lifetime imprisonment for exposing outrageous war crimes to the world in Iraq and Afghanistan– crimes that the public had a right to know about.

The ILPS also calls on the Australian Government to act, as it is required, to defend an Australian Citizen who is suffering from unjust and unfair treatment abroad and to demand that the UK authorities immediately release Julian Assange and return him to Australia. ###

Len Cooper

Chairperson, ILPS