Green Party celebrates Assange's release, says journalists still at risk

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Washington, DC — The Green Party of the United States welcomes the news of Julian Assange's release from Belmarsh maximum security prison in London and return to Australia.

Green Party of the United States
www.gp.org

For immediate release
Wednesday, June 26, 2024

Contacts:
Gloria Mattera, Green Party Media Committee Coordinator, 202-804-2758, [email protected]
Scott McLarty, Green Party Media Director, 202-878-2112, [email protected]

Greens also warned that the conditions of Mr. Assange's plea deal (a plea of guilty to an espionage charge) after 1901 days of unjust detention still leave whistleblowers and investigative journalists vulnerable to prosecution.

"We are happy and relieved that Assange will soon be reunited with his family, but he should never have been imprisoned for doing his job as a journalist by sounding the alarm about US war crimes. Assange should have been set free without criminal charges," said Joseph Naham, national co-chair of the Green Party.

While Democratic and Republican administrations attempted to extradite and prosecute Mr. Assange, the Green Party hosted an address by Mr. Assange during the Green Party's 2016 presidential nomination convention, via video from the Embassy of Ecuador in London where he remained in asylum at the time.

Video of Julian Assange’s Green Party address: https://www.gp.org/assange_addressing_green_party. More about the Green Party's support for protection for whistle-blowers and journalists: https://www.gp.org/whistleblowers.

"The State and Justice Departments viciously targeted Mr. Assange but could never tell us how Wikileaks' publication of the Iraq War cables compromised national security," said Tamar Yager, national co-chair of the Green Party. "With bipartisan support, Obama and then Trump substantially increased the arrests of whistleblowers under the Espionage Act to conceal US war crimes."

Greens support Stella Assange's call for a full pardon for her husband (https://www.reuters.com/world/stella-assange-says-will-seek-pardon-husband-julian-2024-06-25/).

On May 20, Margaret Kimberley, executive editor and senior columnist at Black Agenda Report and a member of the State Committee of the Green Party of New York, called for Mr. Assange release in testimony before the UN Security Council. Ms. Kimberley will be keynote speaker at the Green Party's 2024 Presidential Nominating Convention on Saturday, Aug. 17.

"The charges against Assange not only threatened press freedom everywhere, they gave license to tyrants like Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu to brag about their war crimes and to target journalists," said Jason Call, candidate for the US House of Representatives from Washington's 2nd Congressional District. See "Israel-Gaza war brings 2023 journalist killings to devastating high," report by the Committee to Protect Journalists (https://cpj.org/reports/2024/02/israel-gaza-war-brings-2023-journalist-killings-to-devastating-high/).