ACT NOW: Call Amnesty International to secure Julian Assange Prisoner of Conscience Status to Strengthen his Fight for Pardon and Champion Global Press Freedom

 
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Dear Agnès Callamard and members of the Amnesty International’s International Secretariat,

We celebrate the release of Julian Assange after 5 years incarcerated in HMP Belmarsh, a maximum security prison in the United Kingdom, where he suffered greatly as an innocent man.

 

The role played by Amnesty International in advocating the United States (US) drop their politically motivated charges, facilitated by the United Kingdom, and the determination of Amnesty International’s legal observers to witness court proceedings, despite obstacles placed in their way to monitor justice, are duly noted and commended.

However, to gain his freedom, the United States of America forced him to sign a plea deal prosecuting him under the Espionage Act, which resulted in the criminalisation of the everyday practices of journalists.

The US plea deal rendered most of the charges in the extradition process unsubstantiated notably, the US included a critical statement that no harm to anybody had come from the documents that were published by Wikileaks.

Prior to his release, Julian Assange clearly met the criteria for a prisoner of conscience as defined by Amnesty International (as demonstrated in the GAAN Report). The fact that he has been released from his ordeal in prison and no longer faces extradition to the US, does not make this request to review and award prisoner of conscience, of any less importance.

 

The Amnesty International Spanish Section passed a resolution on the April 21, 2024 to make Julian Assange a POC, reflecting the overwhelming feeling of Amnesty International members in Spain. On June 24, 2024 the Chair of the Amnesty International UK Board wrote to the Amnesty International International Board asking for a review of the evidence in relation to POC for Julian Assange responding to a request from the Amnesty International UK Activist-led campaign for Press Freedom & Julian Assange.

Amnesty International must retroactively make Julian Assange a prisoner of conscience because it will:

  • Help to exonerate Julian, adding weight to his application for a US pardon.
  • Highlight Amnesty International’s statements that the extradition process was politically motivated, used to attack, imprison and silence a media editor over many years, ignoring his human rights.
  • Enable Amnesty International to achieve their most important priority, ‘Freedom of Expression’ as indicated in the Amnesty International Global Strategic Framework.
  • 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.
  • Symbolise and amplify the need to challenge the prosecution of journalism under the US Espionage Act.
  • Campaign for press freedom to prevent 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.

 

I endorse the GAAN Report and its request to make Julian Assange a prisoner of conscience.

(LINK TO GAAN REPORT)

 

Yours sincerely