Julian Assange with a poster that reads "keep fighting." Photo: Peoples Dispatch.
Few times has an empire demonstrated such cruelty and determination to destroy a single man as the US has in its crusade to silence Julian Assange, the activist who revealed the human rights abuses and permanent transgression of international law indulged in by the US throughout the world.
Interviewed by La Jornada during their visit to Mexico, John and Gabriel Shipton, the WikiLeaks founder’s father and half-brother, respectively, told us of the inhumane treatment reserved for Julian in the UK’s maximum security prison where he is fighting the near-complete attempt by the US to extradite him under the 1917 Espionage Act, with which he could be condemned to 175 years in prison for doing what every journalist does: informing the public of information which the powers that be wish to hide. This is why his father is direct: Assange’s struggle is the struggle for freedom. “If Julian falls, journalism falls,” said John Shipton.
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In a more diplomatic tone, last month the High Commissioner of the UN for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, warned that the extradition and trial of Assange could have an “intimidating effect” on “investigative journalism and whistleblowers.”
John and Gabriel spoke of how in Belmarsh prison, which is known as the English Guantanamo, the British authorities have taken away Assange’s ability to communicate, to express ideas, to see and talk with his peers, and to argue in his own defense. On top of locking him in a small cell for 23 hours a day and reducing to a minimum his contact with the exterior world, since last year Assange has been prohibited from attending the hearings of his very own trial, silencing his voice and rendering him invisible.
Throughout this campaign to disappear Assange from the public eye and to replace the truth with the narrative of his prosecutors, the mainstream media has been consistently complicit, even the outlets that profited from the information gleaned from WikiLeaks reports. For this reason, John mentioned a Scottish journalist who described the process against Assange as a torrent of evil.
After presenting the documentary Ithaka, produced by Gabriel, which depicts John’s struggle to free his son, they pointed to traces of hope for awareness surrounding the importance of the Assange case for democracy and freedom of expression. From public opinion to legislators, slowly people are learning of the implications of using the accusation of espionage as a weapon against those who denounce war crimes and corruption.
Despite the odds being stacked against Assange, the masses can have hope that, in solidarity, they will eventually overcome Washington’s seemingly insatiable thirst for revenge.
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
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