A Google translation of a letter dated 11th April 2020
A year after Julian Assange’s imprisonment in the United Kingdom, the three unions of French journalists, members of the IFJ (SNJ, SNJ-CGT, CFDT Journalists), sent him a letter of solidarity.
Dear Julian,
In these times of pandemic where releases are massively granted to prisoners from several countries of the world, your release has been refused by the judge who intends to keep you behind bars in order to continue the hearings on your potential extradition to American soil . Hearings that are part of a flawed procedure, preventing an effective organization for your defense.
On behalf of the three unions of French journalists members of the IFJ (SNJ, SNJ-CGT, CFDT Journalists), we extend our deep support to you in the face of the avalanche of injustices that you have suffered for almost eight years. We can never forget the ordeal you are going through for having succeeded in making possible the most massive leaks of information of general interest in the 21st century. And we can never thank you enough for your titanic work which has enabled journalists from around the world to relay to the general public the files that you have helped to make accessible.
At the time of writing, it has been a year, to the day, since the British authorities took physical possession of your destiny by forcing you into the high security prison at Belmarsh, near London, where you are now being held in a purely arbitrary manner, on political criteria that your jailers, the British authorities, no longer even hide.
International solidarity is yours, but despite the multiple demonstrations outside the prison, information campaigns on social networks, petitions, open letters to institutions and other press releases, arbitrariness and unfairness overwhelm you. Ink has been spilled in many countries around the world to demand your release. But, and you yourself have helped to reveal it in the eyes of all, the methods of those who are striving for truth and transparency around the world are proving to be tenacious: the cogs put in place to make you pay for your courage doesn’t have not yet given in to initiatives in favor of your release.
Julian Assange, thank you for having given strength and inspiration to a number of citizens who are committed to making transparent the criminal designs and the operating modes of administrations which survive only by the opacity of their actions.
A considerable mind has kept you going until this day. May the moral support that we send you in this letter allow you to hold on, the time necessary to find a positive outcome to the sham of judgment organized by your jailers. The time needed to repair eight years of forced confinement, purely political.
Hold on, Julian, for yourself, your family and all those who count on you around the world, because you have become a symbol of the freedom to inform. We need you ! Know that our unions will never stop defending you and putting all means in its possession with the aim of finally freeing you. You can count on us !
Yours,
SNJ, SNJ-CGT, CFDT-Journalists
Paris, April 11, 2020.
Original Post in French on International Federation of Journalists Web Site