Just Foreign Policy is organizing the following letter to President Correa of Ecuador, urging him to grant the petition of Julian Assange for political asylum from the threat of prosecution by the United States under the Espionage Act of 1917 for his role in publishing leaked U.S. diplomatic cables.
To sign, please send your name, title, and organization/institutional affiliation or other ID (see examples in the signatures below) to [email protected] by 3pm ET on Friday, June 22. Dear President Correa, We are writing to urge you to grant political asylum to Julian Assange. As you know, British courts recently struck down Mr. Assange’s appeal against extradition to Sweden, where he is not wanted on criminal charges, but merely for questioning.Mr. Assange has repeatedly made clear he is willing to answer questions relating to accusations against him, but in the United Kingdom. But the Swedish government insists that he be brought to Sweden for questioning. This by itself, as Swedish legal expert and former Chief District Prosecutor for Stockholm Sven-Erik Alhem testified<http://www.scribd.com/doc/48396086/Assange-Case-Opionion-Sven-Erik-Alhem>, is “unreasonable and unprofessional, as well as unfair and disproportionate.” We believe Mr. Assange has good reason to fear extradition to Sweden, as there is a strong likelihood that once in Sweden, he would be imprisoned, and then likely extradited to the United States. As U.S. legal expert and commentator Glenn Greenwald recently noted<http://www.democracynow.org/2012/5/30/divided_british_court_upholds_extradition_of>, were Assange to be charged in Sweden, he would be imprisoned under “very oppressive conditions, where he could be held incommunicado,” rather than released on bail. Pre-trial hearings for such a case in Sweden are held in secret, and so the media and wider public, Greenwald notes, would not know how the judicial decisions against Mr. Assange would be made and what information would be considered. The *Washington Post* has reported<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/29/AR2010112905973.html>that the U.S. Justice Department and Pentagon conducted a criminal investigation into "whether WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange violated criminal laws in the group's release of government documents, including possible charges under the Espionage Act." Many fear, based on documents released by Wikileaks, that the U.S. government has already prepared an indictment and is waiting for the opportunity to extradite Assange from Sweden. The U.S. Justice Department has compelled other members of Wikileaks to testify before a grand jury in order to determine what charges might be brought against Mr. Assange. The U.S. government has made clear its open hostility to Wikileaks, with high-level officials<http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/dec/19/assange-high-tech-terrorist-biden>even referring to Mr. Assange as a “high-tech terrorist,” and seeking access to the Twitter account<http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jan/09/iceland-us-ambassador-twitter-wikileaks>of Icelandic legislator Birgitta Jónsdóttir due to her past ties to Wikileaks. Were he charged, and found guilty under the Espionage Act, Assange could face the death penalty. Prior to that, the case of Pfc. Bradley Manning, the U.S. soldier accused of providing U.S. government documents to Wikileaks, provides an illustration of the treatment that Assange might expect while in custody. Manning has been subjected to repeated and prolonged solitary confinement, harassment by guards, and humiliating treatment such as being forced to strip naked and stand at attention outside his cell. These are additional reasons that your government should grant Mr. Assange political asylum. We also call on you to grant Mr. Assange political asylum because the “crime” that he has committed is that of practicing journalism. He has revealed important crimes against humanity committed by the U.S. government, most notably in releasing video footage<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8603938.stm>from an Apache helicopter of a 2007 incident in which the U.S. military appears to have deliberately killed civilians, including two Reuters employees. Wikileaks’ release of thousands of U.S. State Department cables revealed important cases of U.S. officials acting to undermine democracy and human rights around the world. Because this is a clear case of an attack on press freedom and on the public's right to know important truths about U.S. foreign policy, and because the threat to his health and well-being is serious, we urge you to grant Mr. Assange political asylum. Thank you for your consideration of our request. Michael Moore, Film Director Danny Glover, Film Director Oliver Stone, Film Director Glenn Greenwald, Constitutional lawyer and columnist, Salon.com Chris Hedges, Journalist Coleen Rowley, retired FBI agent and former Minneapolis Division Legal Counsel, one of three “whistleblowers” named Time Magazine’s “Persons of the Year” in 2002 Ann Wright, US Army Colonel (Retired) and former US diplomat Ray McGovern, Former U.S. Army officer and longtime senior CIA analyst (ret.) Thomas Drake, NSA Whistleblower, Bill of Rights Activist Linda Lewis, Board Member, Whistleblower Support Fund Jesselyn Radack, National Security & Human Rights Director, Government Accountability Project Mark Weisbrot, Co-Director, Center for Economic and Policy Research Medea Benjamin, Cofounder, Global Exchange Kathy Kelly, Co-coordinator, Voices for Creative Nonviolence Mark Johnson, Executive Director, Fellowship of Reconciliation Denis J. Halliday, UN Assistant Secretary-General 1994-98. National of Ireland Leslie Cagan, co-founder, United for Peace and Justice Russ Wellen, Foreign Policy in Focus Sam Husseini, Director, Washington Office of the Institute for Public Accuracy Robert Naiman, Policy Director, Just Foreign Policy Julio Huato, Associate Professor of Economics, St. Francis College Michael Brun, Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of Economics, Illinois State University Dana Frank, Professor, Department of History, University of California, Santa Cruz Adrienne Pine, Assistant Professor of Anthropology, American University Demetra Evangelou, Professor, Purdue University A. Belden Fields, Professor Emeritus, Political Science, University of Illinois C. G. Estabrook, Visiting Professor (retired), University of Illinois [list in formation] -- Robert Naiman Policy Director Just Foreign Policy www.justforeignpolicy.org [email protected]
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