OVER 2,000 campaigners fighting for the freedom of Julian Assange attended a Night Carnival in London on Saturday.
The carnival organised by the Don’t Extradite Assange campaign gathered at Lincoln’s Inn Fields before marching past Parliament Square at around 6pm.
Assange has been in detention at HMP Belmarsh since he was expelled from the Ecuadorian embassy in 2019, where he had been staying for more than seven years. He is currently fighting extradition to the United States, having submitted an appeal to the European Court of Human Rights in December.
The procession was led by a large golden effigy of Lady Justice and was attended by several prominent speakers, including Stella Assange, former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, WikiLeaks editor-in-chief Kristinn Hrafnsson, and the husband of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, Richard Ratcliffe.
The Don’t Extradite Assange campaign aims to keep the case in the public eye and put pressure on the British and American governments to free him.
The procession saw protesters chanting: ‘Free, free Julian Assange’ and was characterised by colourful carnival attire and placards, with slogans such as ‘Hands off Assange – don’t shoot the messenger’.
Julian Assange’s wife, Stella, addressed the crowd at the rally in Westminster and hailed the ‘incredible’ response from the public.
‘I think this carnival has had an enormous impact on central London today. We were thousands marching and many thousands more who saw the message and who are now interested and want to find out more.’
She added: ‘The UK is keeping the most important political prisoner, the most famous and one of the most significant cases of political imprisonment in history.
‘It’s right here in London. And they have to find a way out.’
Former Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, speaking at the rally, said: ‘You have to campaign on all fronts and all them all of the time to win justice
‘Most of the British media have completely ignored the whole issue. They really don’t seem to understand that one of the biggest media stories in the world was going on literally within a few metres of some of their offices when the court cases were going on.’
‘The freedom of Julian Assange is a freedom for every real journalist.’
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