Free Julian Assange! Defend Freedom of the Press!
** This article was published on SocialistAction April 11, 2019 ** On April 11, 2019 the Ecuadorian government revoked asylum protection for Wikileaks founder Julian Assange. Within minutes, British gendarmes entered the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, arrested Assange and seized his computers, documents and other materials. He is now being held in London’s Belmarsh prison for bail violation. That spurious charge stems from a withdrawn Swedish extradition request that arose from a now defunct investigation into sexual misconduct. No charges were ever filed against the WikiLeaks founder in the Swedish case. Assange sought asylum in 2012 due to a well-founded fear of rendition to the U.S. for activities related to WikiLeaks’ publishing. At the time, rumors were circulating of a sealed indictment against him. On April 13, 2017, then CIA Director Mike Pompeo raised the stakes by describing WikiLeaks as a “non-state hostile intelligence service.” Then, on November 16, 2018, the mask wa