We are members of the Global Assange Amnesty Network (GAAN) representing Amnesty International members from Australia, Belgium, France, Italy, Spain, Uruguay, the US and UK sections. We have also been leading or supporting campaigns for Press Freedom and Julian Assange, through Amnesty International (AI) and other relevant organisations: Adelaide for Assange, Assange Defense, Free Assange Wave (FAW) and The Committee to Defend Julian Assange (JADC).
We celebrate the release of Julian Assange after 5 years from HMP Belmarsh, a maximum-security prison in the UK, where he suffered greatly as an innocent man. However, to gain his freedom the United States (US) forced him to sign a plea deal prosecuting him under the Espionage Act which has resulted in the criminalisation of the everyday practices of journalists.
We have been at the forefront of work to make Julian Assange an AI prisoner of conscience (POC). The AI Spanish section passed a resolution on the April 21, 2024, to make Julian Assange a POC, reflecting the overwhelming feeling of AI members in Spain. On June 24, 2024, the Chair of the AI UK Board wrote to the AI International Board asking for a review of the evidence in relation to POC for Julian Assange responding to a request from the AI UK Activist-led campaign for Press Freedom & Julian Assange. Additionally, we have created a detailed evidential report that provides compelling new evidence substantiating our request to AI that Julian Assange should retroactively be made a POC. The report directly addresses previous concerns that AI may have had which prevented it from agreeing to such a decision. On 08.07.24 the Chair of the AIUK Board read our report and agreed to send it to the International Board
POC status from AI, will serve to exonerate Julian, thereby adding gravitas to his application for a US pardon. It will emphasise statements released following the Saipan Court hearing that no harm came to anybody from the Wikileaks publications. It will highlight AI’s repeated statements that the extradition process was politically motivated, used to attack, imprison and silence a media editor over many years and that human rights were being ignored.
By capitalising on current global interest in this case, POC status will symbolise and amplify the need to challenge the prosecution of journalism under the US Espionage Act. It will echo the alarm of lawyers, press freedom and human rights organisations who recognise this potentially dangerous precedent that can be used to prohibit and prosecute journalists from reporting war crimes and human rights abuses in the public interest.
The world can see there is an immediate need to prevent further harm to journalists, who are being murdered, spied upon, unnecessarily arrested, sued and harassed for carrying out their work in the public interest. POC status for Julian Assange will serve to challenge the global reach of the US, or any other country that seeks to silence the press in what has become the most important case of the twenty-first century.
Please sign the petition before the Global Assembly (2-4 August 2024) to call upon AI to declare Julian Assange a POC retroactively and to endorse GAAN´s evidential report (published by GAAN, July 2024), sent to Agnès Callamard, Secretary General of Amnesty International, on July 3, 2024. It provides indisputable evidence indicating clearly how Julian Assange, prior to his release and currently, meets the criteria for Prisoner of Conscience.
Please share this with interested contacts.
GAAN (Global Assange Amnesty Network)
Link to the petition: https://petition.global-assange-amnesty-network.org/petition/org/gaan-global-assange-amnesty-network/act-now-call-amnesty-international-to-secure-julian-assange-prisoner-of-concience-status
Link to GAAN´s report: https://drive.proton.me/urls/TQEVR42FZ8#tV0tWDUwrLOb