Politicians, lawyers, journalists, whistleblowers and human rights advocates have called on Albania’s prime minister to step up efforts to secure the release of Australian journalist Julian Assange, co-founder of WikiLeaks.
The experts testified at Belmarsh Court in Sydney on March 4, an event organized by Progressive International in partnership with the F. Holland Foundation and co-chaired by Mark Davis and Marie Kostakidis.
His wife, Stella Assange, has pleaded with the prime minister to use his influence over the United States, an ally of Australia, to demand her husband’s release. Assange has been held arbitrarily for 13 years, four of whom are being held in Belmarsh maximum security prison in London, awaiting possible extradition to the US on charges of espionage.
“Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, more than anyone else, holds Julian’s fate in his hands. So I ask him to take Julian’s fate into his own hands and give him back to us, to our children, to me, and to end his suffering,” said Ms Assange.
Among the notable speakers present at the court informantsand former CIA intelligence officer John Kyriakou, Australian Army intelligence lawyer David McBride, former Foreign Minister in the Cabinet Gillard Bob Carr, Greek politician Yanis Varoufakis, and independent MPs such as ALP’s Josh Wilson, Senator David Shoebridge, Dr Monique Ryan and Bridget Archer.
Testimonies were heard from Bernard Colliery, a human rights lawyer, and Kelly Tranter and Jane Robinson, Assange’s lawyer, as well as the president of the Association for Middle East and North African Affairs. [1]Karen Pearcy, award-winning journalist Kerry O’Brien, and Dean Yates, former Baghdad bureau chief for Reuters.
International law: Yates said of the famous “mass killing” video about the US airstrike on the streets of Baghdad that killed two Reuters employees. However, the United States did not prosecute the men who pulled the trigger or anyone else up the chain of command. They did not prosecute those who conducted a bogus investigation into the attack or covered it up and lied about it.”
Academic Kylie Moore Gilbert, who spent 804 days in an Iranian prison on espionage charges, also spoke. She is released in a prisoner exchange in 2022 after the Australian government intervenes in her case.
“I am so grateful and grateful to the Australian Government for securing my release after two and a half years of an unjust sentence of 10 years in prison for crimes I did not commit. Julian is also accused of ridiculous offenses of which he is not guilty. He has suffered enough. I call on the Australian Government to show the same resolve Which I applied to my case to secure Julian Assange’s freedom. Julian is one of us. “She’s a brave person who stood up and spoke up for what’s right,” said Ms. Moore-Gilbert.
Translated from English by Anna Polo
[1] Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance, the Australian trade union and professional organizations covering the media, entertainment, sport and arts industries.
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