Almost forgotten in light of larger, more threatening stories, is the plight of Julian Assange, informally charged with espionage for basically committing Journalism.
Here is a recent update from fellow journalists who refuse to abandon him while he languishes in torture-like conditions in Britain's notorious Belmarsh prison. More info on that from this article from January, 2022: .wsws.org/en/articles/2022/01/05/assa-j05.html and below.
Friends
and colleagues,
Our
contemporary,
Julian Assange, has now spent over 1,200 days in a
maximum-security
prison. If we consider the date of June
19, 2012, when he first sought Ecuador's protection from the very
charges he now faces, he has now been deprived of his liberty for
over 10 years.
With
this in mind, we're writing to stress the importance of
continued pressure in our news reports and broadcasts, including
asking
our representatives what is being done to bring this situation to
an
end.
In
light of this, you
are probably
aware of the positive development that a
number of US citizens - lawyers
and journalists
who
worked with Assange - recently
sued the Central Intelligence Agency and itsformer
director
Mike Pompeo
in
the Southern District
of New York.
We
want to provide a little more information. The plaintiffs are US
lawyers Margaret Ratner Kunstler and Deborah Hrbeck;
German-American
journalist John Goetz; and British-American journalist Charles
Glass.
They allege Pompeo and the CIA breached their constitutional
rights
under the Fourth Amendment, protecting against illegal search and
seizure.
This
was, they allege, performed on the CIA's behalf by the Spanish
security firm UC Global and its founder David Morales - both also
listed as defendants in the complaint.
The
plaintiffs are represented by lead attorney Richard
Roth, of Roth Law, and a full copy of the motion filed on
August
15 can be found
here.
Thanks
to the reporting
of Kevin Gosztola
of The
Dissenter,
it has also been confirmed that Judge John Koeltl has been
assigned
to preside over the case. Positively,
as Kevin reports, Koeltl
previously ruled in favour of Assange and WikiLeaks
in 2019 when the Democratic National Committee tried
to hold them liable for publishing its emails three years earlier.
Meanwhile,
Assange's
lawyers in the UK have
since submitted their 'perfected grounds of appeal' in
order
to
challenge the ruling of Home Secretary Priti Patel, as well as the
original ruling of District Judge Vanessa Baraitser in January
2021.
As earlier
reported by Tareq,
the defence are submitting
appeals on 16 separate grounds. Once the prosecution on behalf of
the
US government makes their points in response, the British High
Court
will hold a preliminary hearing to decide which points can in fact
be
raised at an appeal - the ruling on which can be further
challenged
before the substantive elements of the
appeal begin.
It
appears there will be many months of court proceedings ahead. It's
a crucial time
to keep public
attention on the issue.
With
this in mind, please note that on 1pm on Saturday, 8 October,
activists will be forming a human chain around the British
Parliament
in protest of Assange's continuing imprisonment. Nearly 2,500
people have now signed up. More information is available
here
for those interested.
Finally,
welcome to those of you who've just joined us. We
are glad to report there are now upwards of 2,000 of us here
speaking
up for Julian Assange.
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
2
2
1
