{"id":2731,"date":"2022-10-06T16:08:39","date_gmt":"2022-10-06T14:08:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vey-associes.com\/julian-assange-lets-be-aware-of-the-cost-of-freedom-of-speech\/"},"modified":"2024-03-27T18:12:46","modified_gmt":"2024-03-27T17:12:46","slug":"julian-assange-lets-be-aware-of-the-cost-of-freedom-of-speech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vey-associes.com\/en\/julian-assange-lets-be-aware-of-the-cost-of-freedom-of-speech","title":{"rendered":"Julian Assange : Let’s be aware of the cost of freedom of speech"},"content":{"rendered":"

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For more than 10 years, Julian Assange has been deprived of his freedom for publishing human rights violations committed by the US military in Afghanistan and Iraq. This information of public interest had been relayed and exploited throughout the world.<\/p>\n

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The founder of Wikileaks is the only person prosecuted for these publications and has been imprisoned for more than three years in the high security prison of Belmarsh after spending seven years in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. He has not been convicted or even tried on the charges against him.<\/p>\n

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For more than 10 years, he has lived under the constant threat of extradition from the United Kingdom to the United States, where he faces a sentence of 175 years in prison, a life sentence with no hope of release. He is also subject to a campaign of humiliation and discrediting. According to Nils Melzer, former United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture, the accumulation of these elements amounts to psychological torture.<\/p>\n

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For more than 10 years, Julian Assange could have hoped that the democracies on which his fate depended would put an end to the undignified treatment he is undergoing. Nothing has happened. Sweden, Ecuador, and today the United Kingdom – the country of Habeas corpus and the Bill of Rights – have instead lent their support to the American prosecution.<\/p>\n

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This illegitimate situation is becoming more and more unacceptable.<\/p>\n

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Beyond that, it raises concerns about press freedom and the risk of discouraging investigative journalism, as highlighted last August by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. The right to information is essential and deserves to be protected, as do those who exercise it.<\/p>\n

That is why the International Julian Assange Defense Team is today appealing to those who have the power to stop the injustice:<\/p>\n