domingo, 9 de abril de 2017

No: Assange is a political prisoner who's exposed crimes and atrocities | The Sacramento Bee

No: Assange is a political prisoner who's exposed crimes and atrocities | The Sacramento Bee

 

Julian Assange is a political prisoner who has never been charged with a crime.

That
few people know this and that large media outlets have conveniently
ignored this fact is an indictment of all Western political leaders and
journalists who claim to care about human rights and civil liberties but
remain silent - or worse - about one of the world's most famous
prisoners of conscience.

In 2015, the United Nations Working Group
on Arbitrary Detention found that the governments of the United Kingdom
and Sweden had arbitrarily detained Assange. They ordered his release
and compensation.

He is, in effect, imprisoned in the Ecuadorian
embassy in London, where the government of Ecuador has granted him
political asylum. If he tries to leave, he will be extradited to Sweden,
where he is wanted for questioning in a criminal case in which no
charges have been brought.

But the real threat is that Sweden
would extradite him to the United States, where a grand jury would
likely indict him. In fact, it's considered likely that a sealed
indictment has already been prepared.

He would be imprisoned pending trial and could face life in prison or even the death penalty.

But
Assange has not committed crimes. He and his WikiLeaks organization
have committed acts of journalism, focusing in particular on defending
human rights and civil liberties. That's why he's received so many
journalism awards.

WikiLeaks' real offense has been exposing the crimes of the most powerful people in the world.

Thanks
to WikiLeaks, millions have seen the classified video of the U.S.
military gunning down 18 people in Iraq, including two Reuters
employees, in July 2007.

 Sacramento Bee