Brazilian President Lula da Silva Calls For Freedom For Julian Assange
(2023-05-09 at 02:00:28 )

Brazilian President Lula da Silva Calls For Freedom For Julian Assange

"The press, which defends freedom of the press, does nothing to free this citizen."

Brazils President Luiz Inacio "Lula" da Silva has called for freedom for Julian Assange and denounced the lack of concerted efforts to free the journalist.

Lula spoke to a group of reporters in London Saturday while in town to attend the coronation of King Charles III.

Mr. Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder, has spent four years in Britains Belmarsh Prison while fighting extradition to the United States.

"It is an embarrassment that a journalist who denounced trickery by one state against another is arrested, condemned to die in jail and we do nothing to free him. It is a crazy thing," Lula told reporters. "We talk about freedom of expression; the guy is in prison because he denounced wrongdoing. And the press does not do anything in defense of this journalist. I can not understand it."

"I think there must be a movement of world press in his defense. Not in regard to his person, but to defend the right to denounce," Lula told the reporters. "The guy did not denounce anything vulgar. He denounced that a state was spying on others, and that became a crime against the journalist. The press, which defends freedom of the press, does nothing to free this citizen. It is sad, but it is true.”

Also, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Friday he too was frustrated over the continued detention of Mr. Julian Assange: "enough is enough."

"I know it is frustrating, I share the frustration," Albanese told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. from London for the coronation of King Charles III.

"I can not do more than make very clear what my position is, and the United States administration is certainly very aware of what the Australian governments position is. There is nothing to be served by his ongoing incarceration."

"Enough is enough, this needs to be brought to a conclusion, it needs to be worked through," said Albanese.

Mr. Julian Assange has battled for years to avoid being sent to the United States, where the journalist faces 17 charges of espionage because of WikiLeaks publication of a trove of classified documents in 2010.

United States prosecutors allege he published 700,000 secret classified documents which exposed the United States government and its wrongdoings in Iraq and Afghanistan. Wikileaks received the documents from Chelsea Manning.

Albanese said Australians cannot understand why the United States would free the source who leaked the documents, Chelsea Manning, while Mr. Julian Assange still faces life in prison.

President Joe Biden has been accused of hypocrisy for demanding the release of journalists around the world, while he actively seeks the extradition of Mr. Julian Assange to face American espionage charges.

Mr. Assange faces a sentence of up to 175 years in a maximum security prison if extradited to the United States.

u201c"Enough is enough."-n-nAustralian PM Anthony Albanese has expressed frustration at the US-u2019s continuing efforts to extradite WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on charges including espionage-Al Jazeera English (Al Jazeera English) 1683272705

u201c"Julian Assange Writes Letter to King Charles III Inviting Him to Visit Belmarsh Prison "Kingdom"" via firstpost-u201d-WikiLeaks (WikiLeaks) 1683460894

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