Chinese artist and dissident Ai Weiwei protested in silence on Monday to demand the release of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, in front of the London Court of the Old Bailey where the examination of his extradition request is completed this week.
Ai Weiwei stood up silently, hand over mouth, revealing a pink T-shirt on which he could be seen fingering the 49-year-old Australian above the message
"Free Assange"
.
Read also: Ai Weiwei denounces the Chinese government's disinformation on the coronavirus
"Let him be a free person,"
the artist told reporters, judging that the founder of Wikileaks, whom he has visited several times,
"represented the fundamental value of what we are fighting for: the freedom to the press ”.
Julian Assange is claimed by the American justice which wants to judge him in particular for espionage.
He faces 175 years in prison for having disseminated, from 2010, more than 700,000 classified documents on American military and diplomatic activities, particularly in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Read also: The battle over the extradition of Julian Assange resumes in London
Ai Weiwei, who himself spent 81 days in detention in 2011 after his criticism of the Chinese regime, explains that he chose a silent demonstration out of the desire not to “
repeat
ourselves
”, because “
all the words we would like to say have already been said
”.
“
We need a lot of demonstrations, in different forms
,” added the Chinese dissident.
As an artist, if I can't use my art - which is very limited - then I prefer to stay silent.
"
Julian Assange was arrested in April 2019 after seven years behind the walls of the Ecuadorian diplomatic representation, where he took refuge after violating the conditions of his bail, fearing extradition to the United States, which accuses him of 'endangering American service sources.
To read also: Ai Weiwei: "The profession of artist is a dangerous profession"
It is up to the British courts to determine whether the American request for extradition submitted to it meets a certain number of legal criteria, and in particular if it is not disproportionate or incompatible with human rights.
Judge Vanessa Baraister has already warned that her decision would "
probably be made after the (presidential) election in the United States
" on November 3.
