JULIAN Assange supporters held a lively protest outside the Australian High Commission in London on Wednesday, the 1,000th day of his imprisonment in Belmarsh jail.
Alison Mason from the Julian Assange Defence Committee told News Line: ‘Today is significant because it is the 1,000th day Julian Assange has been incarcerated in Belmarsh prison.
‘It is a wrongful confinement for publishing the war crimes of the US military leaked to him by whistleblower Chelsea Manning.
‘These were published around the world but Julian is the only one being persecuted.
‘We are here because Julian’s country could save him with a simple phone call.
‘Surely Australia has a bargaining chip with the AUKUS and trade deals.’
AUKUS is a security pact between Australia, the UK and the US which will enable Australia to acquire nuclear submarines.
Mason continued: ‘The Australian deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce recently called on the US to drop the charges and allow Julian to return home.
‘The movement to free Julian Assange is growing louder in Australia with an election looming. That’s why we’re here to pressure the Australian High Commission to do its job and protect its citizens abroad.’
Also on the protest, Minoo Razi said: ‘I support the release of Julian Assange because he revealed what our government was doing in Iraq.
‘There should be no secrets and the US cannot just be allowed to have its way and extradite him.’
At the protest Mason read out a letter from Assange’s mother:
Open letter to the world from Mrs Christine Assange to save her son:
‘Fifty years ago in giving birth for the first time as a young mother, I thought there could be no greater pain. But it was soon forgotten when I held my beautiful baby boy in my arms. I named him Julian.
‘I realise now that I was wrong. There is a greater pain.
‘The unending gut-wrenching pain of being the mother of a multi-award-winning journalist who had the courage to publish the truth about high level government crimes and corruption.
‘The pain of watching my son who sought to publish important truths, being endlessly globally smeared.
‘The pain of watching my son who risked his life to expose injustice, being fitted up and denied a fair legal process, over and over again.
‘The pain of seeing my healthy child slowly wasting away from being denied proper health and medical care for years in detention.
‘The anguish of seeing my boy cruelly psychologically tortured to try and break his huge spirit.
‘The constant nightmare of him being extradited to the US and being buried alive in extreme solitary confinement for the rest of his life.
‘The constant fear the CIA will carry out its plans to assassinate him
‘The rush of sadness as I saw his frail exhausted body slumping from a mini-stroke in the last hearing due to chronic stress.
‘Many people are also traumatised by seeing a vengeful superpower using its unlimited resources to bully and destroy a single defenceless individual.
‘I wish to thank all the caring decent citizens globally protesting Julian’s brutal political persecution .
‘Please keep raising your voices to your politicians till it’s all they can hear.
‘His life is in your hands.’
Christine Assange
Meanwhile, Assange’s partner Stella Moris, said in a statement: ‘It will be 1,000 days this Wednesday that Julian Assange has spent in the harshest prison in the UK.
‘His young children, ages two and four, have no memory of their father outside the highest security prison of the UK.
‘Julian is simply held at the request of the US government while they continue to abuse the US-UK extradition treaty for political ends.’
She added: ‘In those 1,000 days, Julian has been held in extraordinary isolation for part of the time, faced two Covid shutdowns and, in October, he suffered a stress-induced stroke during his latest hearing.
‘His lawyers have complained about the limited access they have to their client which has undermined his defence.
‘His requests to attend his own hearings have been refused, and when he has been permitted to attend, his requests to sit next to his lawyers have also been refused.’
- In the Greek city of Thessaloniki members of the youth wing of the Syriza party protested outside the British Consulate for Julian Assange.
A member of the Board of the Association of Exiled Prisoners of Resistance 1967-74 said: ‘The courageous journalist who fights for the rights of all of us is imprisoned because he exposed war crimes and corruption of governments worldwide.
‘We also endorse his mother’s concern for his life, as expressed in her open letter.
‘However we believe that the more citizens become active in the campaign for his release the more difficult will it be for him to be abducted or exterminated.’
A three member delegation sealed the call for the immediate release of Assange at at the consulate door.
Their statement reads: ‘The Association of Exiled Prisoners of Resistance 1967-74 expresses its strong protest against the violation of international law against Julian Assange, the brave journalist who has been held in a maximum security prison near London for two and a half years, after being arbitrarily detained for seven years at the Ecuadorian embassy.
‘On December 10, 2021 the British Supreme Court approved the extradition of Assange to the United States, where he faces 175 years in prison for publishing the international crimes of the US and its allies.
‘Regrettably, the court accepted the US’ accusations against Mr Assange, award-winning journalist and publisher of WikiLeaks. This is a heavy blow for both Assange and for the free press internationally.
‘We express our concern for his life and the future of free journalism internationally. We demand the immediate release of Julian Assange.’
