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Greg Barnes comments: “Sweden drops preliminary investigation”

Tuesday, 19 November
Email: contact@bridgesforfreedom.media
Phone: + 44 7717 618138 (Naomi) / +44 7501 673109

ASSANGE: Sweden drops preliminary investigation – comment

Swedish prosecutor Eva-Marie Persson has told a press conference today
that her preliminary investigation into WikiLeaks publisher Julian
Assange has been dropped.

Greg Barnes, Advisor to the Australian Assange campaign, said:

“The decision by Sweden is the only one it could have taken. It finally
recognises that Julian Assange’s adamant denial of wrongdoing is the
truth. It is the US that must now be persuaded to drop its unfair and
dangerous pursuit of Assange.

“Australia must now step up its actions to protect an Australian
citizen whose very life hangs in the balance.”

Bridges for Media Freedom
https://bridgesforfreedom.media

Sweden drops Julian Assange investigation after nearly 10 years

Nick Miller writes

Swedish prosecutors have dropped their investigation into an allegation that Julian Assange raped a woman in Stockholm in August 2010, saying the decade of delay means the evidence is now too weak to support a prosecution.

In a statement released on Tuesday, WikiLeaks said Assange had “always expressed his willingness to engage” in the Swedish investigation, which it said had become “exceptionally politicised”.

“There has been no prospect for a fair hearing [in Sweden] for many years,” the WikiLeaks statement said. “An investigation into how the justice system failed to withstand the political and media pressure and lessons learned should be pursued.”

Kristinn Hrafnsson, WikiLeaks’ editor-in-chief, said the focus should now be on “the threat Mr Assange has been warning about for years: the belligerent prosecution of the United States and the threat it poses to the First Amendment”.

He said the UK Crown Prosecution Service had “artificially prolonged the Swedish preliminary investigation” by advising Sweden against questioning Assange in the UK and pressuring Sweden into keeping the investigation alive.

Assange gave a statement to Swedish prosecutors who visited him at the Ecuador embassy in Knightsbridge, London in 2016. In his statement he rejected the rape allegation, saying his relations with the alleged victim had been consensual.

Read articles in the New Daily and Sydney Morning Herald

Senator Whish-Wilson tables Petition: Notice 38 with 200,000 signatures in Australian Parliament

13 November 2019, @SenatorSurfer, Senator Wish-Wilson speaking outside Parliament

View and sign the Petition on change.org. It is already as one of the largest petitions in tabled in the history of the Australian parliament. The daily growth is heartening and the target is now 300,000 signatures.

Hansard on tabling in Parliament

Current status on Parliamentary Support for the Bring Julian Assange Home Campaign

Stefania Maurizi writes “A massive scandal: how Assange, his doctors, lawyers and visitors were all spied on for the U.S.”

La Repubblica has had access to the video and audio recordings of the Spanish company, UC Global, which spied on the WikiLeaks founder, his team of journalists and all of us who visited Assange at the Ecuadorian embassy for the last seven years. Video footage and audio recordings reveal an appalling violation of privacy. All the information gathered by UC Global was sent to US intelligence

Read whole article at La Republica

David Rovics sings “Behind These Prison Walls”

David Rovics sings outside Bellmarsh prison

Chords

David uses a capo to match his voice
Without a capo the chords are
C | Am | F | G
Am | F | C | G

Lyrics

Behind these prison walls there’s a man who’s won awards
For the work that he has done and all that it affords
Such as the knowledge of the horrors committed in our name
They can’t stop the message, so the messenger gets blamed

Behind these prison walls, in solitary confinement
In a land of rolling hills and royalty and other such refinement
Is someone who is a hero to whistleblowers everywhere
Who helped them tell the world of the crimes of Tony Blair

Behind these prison walls you will find a mortal man 
The reason why we know what happened in Afghanistan
When the soldiers of the empire whose sun set long before
Were torturing civilians in their terror war

Behind these prison walls is a part of Wikileaks
An eloquent orator, but you won’t hear him speakh
Locked away in silence, one who knows too well 
How those in power act when there’s another war to sell 

Behind these prison walls is one who stands accused
Of exactly what offenses, the US has refusedT
o say precisely which, or to try to clear the mist
Or to explain how he’s not the same as other journalists

Behind these prison walls is a person they’d deprive
Of most of the things in life that keep us all alive
A person being tortured, as we stand here now
For revealing the war crimes – why, when, where, how

Behind these prison walls, our very right to be informed 
Of what the hell is going on is the teacup in this storm
With knowledge there is power, so the solution by the Crown
A 24-hour-a-day, indefinite lockdown

Behind these prison walls


National Union of Journalists (UK) issues resolution on Assange extradition case

PRESS RELEASE
For Immediate release: 13/11/19

National Union of Journalists issues resolution on Assange extradition case

The union’s executive passed a comprehensive motion last Friday demanding that Assange should not be sent to the US where he could face 175 years for revealing information about the Iraq and Afghan wars.

Assange has been held in Belmarsh prison since he was committed for extradition by then Home Secretary Sajid Javid.

The union is now writing to the Home Secretary, the Shadow Home Secretary, and the Shadow Justice Minister encouraging them to take action on the Assange case.

The Don’t Extradite Assange campaign said: ‘this is an important development which gives the lie to the US governments argument that Julian Assange is not a journalist. It also provides an important initiative that other trade unionists can rally behind’. 

The full text of the motion is as follows.

This executive notes:
1. That Wikileaks founder Julian Assange is held in Belmarsh prison awaiting United States extradition proceedings, a process that can take many years.
2. If Assange is successfully prosecuted in the US he faces 175 years in prison.
3. That the extraterritorial application of the Espionage Act in the indictment of Assange criminalises journalistic activities, in this case activities carried out on UK soil by a non-US national, in collaboration with numerous UK media (including The Guardian, Channel 4 and The Telegraph).

4. That previous statements by the General Secretary of the NUJ, by the Australian Journalists Union MEAA, and by the International Federation of Journalists’ organisations have supported Assange. 
5. That there is a political dimension to extraditions and that the ‘special relationship’ between the UK and US makes the extradition of Assange more likely to go ahead.

This executive believes:
1. That Assange’s indictment comes at a time of heightened threats to the press in Western countries in the form of raids on newspapers and broadcasters, government claims that the press are ‘the enemy of the people’, and actual prosecutions involving life-long sentences for publishing accurately.
2. That Assange’s extradition to the United States would establish a dangerous precedent with regard to the prosecution of journalists in this country under the UK Official Secrets Act given the requirement for the UK courts to accept US arguments as to dual criminality for the extradition to go ahead. 
3. That press freedoms in this country will be weakened if the courts accept that NUJ members’ publishing activities in this country can give rise to criminal liability in foreign states and to their consequent lawful extradition.
4. That the publication of the Afghan and Iraq war logs and other material by Wikileaks that are the subject of the US indictment revealed important information that has benefitted the public.
7. Disclosing information to the public should never be equated with espionage 

This executive resolves: 
1. To campaign to stop the extradition of Julian Assange to the US.
2. To write to the Home Secretary, the Shadow Home Secretary, and the Shadow Justice Secretary making the union’s case on this issue. 

For more information contact:  Amna Shaddad
07852230063
amna.shaddad@protonmail.com
media@dontextraditeassange.com

Don’t Extradite Assange Campaign
Website: dontextraditeassange.com
twitter, facebook: @DEAcampaign

Mark Curtis and Matt Kennard write “Julian Assange’s judge and her husband’s links to the British military establishment exposed by WikiLeaks”

The husband of Lady Emma Arbuthnot, the Westminster chief magistrate overseeing WikiLeaks’ founder Julian Assange’s extradition to the US, has financial links to the British military establishment, including institutions and individuals exposed by WikiLeaks.

It can also be revealed that Lady Arbuthnot has received gifts and hospitality in relation to her husband, including from a military and cybersecurity company exposed by WikiLeaks. These activities indicate that the chief magistrate’s activities cannot be considered as entirely separate from her husband’s

Read Full article at Daily Maverick

Srećko Horvat writes “I visited Julian Assange in prison, what can you do?”

“Every time we witness an injustice and do not act, we train our character to be passive in its presence and thereby eventually lose all ability to defend ourselves and those we love.” 
― Julian Assange 

The last time I saw Julian Assange, exactly one year ago, when he was still at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, I didn’t know yet that the next time I would see him would be in a high-security prison.

I didn’t visit as a journalist, as a lawyer, nor as a family member – I came as a friend.

But not only as a friend – I’ve also visited Julian as a member and one of the co-founders of DiEM25, the movement that has continuously stressed that the freedom of Julian Assange is a European issue, a precedent that might have dire consequences for democracy and freedom of the press in Europe. And of course – his life.  

To be completely honest, I wasn’t prepared for a prison visit. I wasn’t prepared because I didn’t know if the visit will take place at all up until the very last moment. But more importantly, I simply couldn’t: how can you possibly be prepared for visiting a friend in prison?

. . .

Read article in DiEM25 (Democracy in Europe Movement 2025)

The Don’t Extradite Assange Campaign has been established in the UK by WikiLeaks in order to focus campaigning efforts on preventing the extradition


Journalism is on trial

Julian Assange is the founder of WikiLeaks and is charged by the Trump government with publishing the Afghan and Iraq war logs for which he could face 175 years in jail.

He is currently in Belmarsh prison awaiting his four-day trial, starting on 24thFebruary at Belmarsh Magistrates Court. Former UK ambassador to Uzbekistan, Craig Murray has said “he has all the symptoms of a torture victim, in terms of disorientation & difficulty in asserting their will & speaking coherently”

The UN working group on arbitrary detention issued a statement saying that “the right of Mr. Assange to personal liberty should be restored”.

Massimo Moratti of Amnesty International has publicly stated on their website that, “Were Julian Assange to be extradited or subjected to any other transfer to the USA, Britain would be in breach of its obligations under international law.”

Human Rights Watch published an article saying, “The only thing standing between an Assange prosecution and a major threat to global media freedom is Britain. It is urgent that it defend the principles at risk.”

The NUJ has stated “US charges against Assange pose a huge threat, one that could criminalise the critical work of investigative journalists & their ability to protect their sources”.

Don’t extradite Assange web site