Rio de Janeiro: Brazilian President Lula de Silva said after attending the coronation ceremony of Britain’s King Charles III that concerted efforts should be made to free WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. Assange has been lodged in Belmarsh prison in Britain for the last four years. “It is shameful that a journalist who exposed and publicly denounced the treachery of one country against another, is arrested, left to die in prison, and we Do nothing to get rid of him.
Lula said, “We talk about freedom of expression. This man is in jail because he criticized wrongdoing. And the press is doing nothing to protect this journalist. This thing is beyond my understanding. ”Lula made this comment in response to a question about Assange. He said that he forgot to talk to British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak about this and will write a letter to Sunak in this regard after returning to Brazil.
Significantly, Assange has been fighting a long legal battle against efforts to extradite himself to the US. Lula’s statement has come at a time when he has not hesitated to make statements contrary to the US in geopolitical matters. On the other hand, Australia has also been exerting diplomatic pressure on the US to drop the prosecution against Assange. Assange is an Australian citizen. Significantly, if extradited to the US, Assange could face 17 charges related to espionage and one charge related to computer misuse. All these allegations are related to the matter of making public intelligence documents related to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
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