Julian Assange urges US to end Wikileaks ‘witch-hunt’

LONDON – WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange made his first public appearance Sunday since he took refuge inside Ecuador’s Embassy in London two months ago, seeking to avoid extradition to Sweden for questioning over sexual misconduct allegations.

Assange has urged the US to end its “witch-hunt” on Wikileaks, in his first public statement since entering Ecuador’s London embassy in June.

Assange spoke from a balcony at the embassy and thanked Ecuador’s president, who has granted him asylum.
He faces extradition to Sweden over sexual assault claims, which he denies.

Assange said: “As Wikileaks stands under threat, so does the freedom of expression and the health of all our societies.

“We must use this moment to articulate the choice that is before the government of the United States of America.

“Will it return to and re-affirm the revolutionary values it was founded on?

“Or will it lurch off the precipice, dragging us all into a dangerous and oppressive world in which journalists fall silent under the fear of prosecution and citizens must whisper in the dark.”
 
“I ask President Obama to do the right thing, the United States must renounce its witchhunt against WikiLeaks,” said Assange, making his first public statement since he was granted political asylum by Ecuador.

Assange faced the world’s media Sunday from Ecuador’s embassy in London where he has been holed up for two months.

“I have spoken to Julian Assange and I can tell you that he is in fighting spirit. He is thankful to the people of Ecuador and especially to the President (Rafael) Correa for granting him asylum,” WikiLeaks lawyer Baltasar Garzon said outside the embassy before Assange spoke.
 
He also mentioned Bahraini rights activist Nabeel Rajab, who was sentenced this to three years for participating in “unauthorised” protests as well as Russian punk activist group, Pussy Riot, whose members were given a two year-sentence for on charges “hooliganism motivated by religious hatred”.
 
“There is unity in the oppression,” said Assange.

Reading from a statement, Garzon added that Assange had instructed his lawyers “to carry out a legal action in order to protect the right of WikiLeaks, Julian himself and all those currently being investigated.”
The Spanish lawyer who is renowned for pursuing Chile’s former dictator Augusto Pinochet did not elaborate on the new legal move requested by Assange.

WikiLeaks meanwhile urged Sweden, which wants to question the WikiLeaks founder over alleged sexual misconduct, to guarantee it would not extradite him to the United States.

“It would be a good basis to negotiate a way to end this matter if the Swedish authorities would declare without any reservation that Julian would never be extradited from Sweden to the USA,” WikiLeaks spokesman Kristinn Hrafnsson told AFP by telephone.

As rain fell around the embassy, around 50 police officers, crowds of Assange supporters and members of the public joined the world’s media outside the building.

Assange, 41, is said to be living in a small room within the embassy, which is situated in London’s plush Knightsbridge district and round the corner from the luxury Harrods department store.

Amid a widening diplomatic row over the affair, Ecuador on Thursday granted asylum to Assange, whose website enraged the United States by publishing a vast cache of confidential US government files.

With police primed to detain him Sunday, Assange spoke from a balcony in order not to step outside.

Despite Ecuador providing a haven for Assange, British Foreign Secretary William Hague has said Britain had no choice but to seek his extradition.

Britain has angered Ecuador by suggesting it could invoke the Diplomatic and Consular Premises Act of 1987, which it says allows it to revoke the diplomatic immunity of an embassy on British soil and go in to arrest Assange.

Assange took refuge in the embassy on June 19 to evade extradition to Sweden. Supporters of the former hacker believe that once in Sweden he could be extradited to the United States.

Assange’s mother on Sunday expressed confidence that her son would make it to Ecuador to continue his whistleblowing work.

“He’s had billions of people around the world supporting him, the US and their allies are almost alone on this one and the support grows day by day,” she said in an interview with Australia’s ABC 24.

“It could be that the UK government decides to backtrack from this position of being the US lap dog and stands up for its own sovereignty as well as the sovereignty of Ecuador.”

The South American country has meanwhile received powerful backing from regional allies as they warned Britain of “grave consequences” if it breaches diplomatic security at the London embassy.

Foreign ministers from the Venezuela-led so-called Bolivarian Alliance for the People of Our America (ALBA) flew to Ecuador on Saturday to demonstrate full diplomatic support.

“We warn the government of the United Kingdom that it will face grave consequences around the world if it directly breaches the territorial integrity of the Embassy of the Republic of Ecuador in London,” said a statement issued at the end of the ALBA meeting.

WikiLeaks’ publication of a vast cache of confidential government files has enraged the US government, while his backers fear he could be tried on espionage charges there and face the death penalty.

In 2010, WikiLeaks published hundreds of thousands of US military documents on the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as diplomatic cables that deeply embarrassed Washington.
 
Source: TOE (www.timesofearth.com) and agencies