Officials from some of the major international journalism unions called from Geneva, Switzerland on Wednesday to "
release
" WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange "
in the name of press freedom
".
On June 17, the British government announced that it had signed the decree for the extradition to the United States of the 50-year-old Australian, detained in the high security prison of Belmarsh, near London, for three years.
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Julian Assange is being prosecuted in the United States, where he faces 175 years in prison for having published in 2010 on his WikiLeaks site approximately 700,000 confidential documents relating to the activities of the American army, in particular in Iraq and Afghanistan.
For the signatories of this appeal, bringing together leaders of French, British, German, Spanish and Australian journalists' unions, the British government's decision constitutes a "
flagrant violation of human rights
" and demonstrates "
total disregard for the freedom of the press.
»
The extradition of Julian Assange "
would have serious repercussions for investigative journalism since any use of so-called classified or secret documents could be prosecuted
", pushing not to "
reveal (of) information of public interest from sources protected official.
»
The WikiLeaks founder spent seven years at the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where he took refuge in 2012 while on bail.
He then feared extradition to the United States, or to Sweden where he was the subject of rape proceedings since abandoned.
He was finally arrested by British police in April 2019 and imprisoned.
