2021-12-13

The decision of the ruling capitalist court in Britain on Friday, 10 December 2021, on the International Day of Human Rights, was a clear violation of human rights, which they claimed was the basic slogan of the French bourgeois revolution in 1789. The British Supreme Court ruled that Julian Assange, the founder of the WikiLeaks website, an Australian citizen, to be extradited immediately to the United States. This was in contrast to another decision in January against the US request to extradite Julian Assange, citing concerns about his health if extradited to the United States and his chances of defending himself in court.

 The decision of extradition of Julian Assange to the United States by the British government, which claims to respect “democracy”, on the alleged “World Human Rights Day”, should be considered as an anti-democratic and anti-human rights action. This is an action against a brave and responsible journalist who has been prosecuted, imprisoned, tortured, and persecuted for many years for doing his human and ethical duty, and revealing the secrets of crimes and corruption of governments. The US and British pressure on the court to extradite Julian Assange came a day after Claudia Ruth, Germany’s adviser on cultural affairs, announced that Germany might grant Julian Assange asylum.

Julian Assange was arrested in London in December 2010 following an apparent CIA plot in Sweden, after publishing evidence of US war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan. A few months earlier, a Swedish court had issued a warrant for arresting him on charges of “sexual harassment”. The British Supreme Court in November 2012 did not uphold his extradition order to Sweden. The pretext for making sexually explicit allegations against Julian Assange in Sweden was when he travelled to Sweden to attend an international conference, where he had stated that he intended to have another 15,000 classified documents related to the war in Afghanistan to be published, without revealing personal identities. With this announcement, the US imperialist espionage apparatus began to conspire against him with a false accusation. US leaders claim that Assange has endangered the lives of many by disclosing the documents. A message was also posted on Twitter and WikiLeaks saying “we have been warned to wait for the dirty tricks”. Assange arrived at the Ecuadorian embassy in London on June 19, 2012, and applied for political asylum, which was issued and he took refuge at the embassy, where he was forced to spend seven years. With the change of government in Ecuador and pressure from the United States, the British embassy revoked Assange’s asylum in violation of international law, and in April 2019 allowed British polices to enter the embassy to arrest him. He has since been imprisoned in Britain.

But what is the crime of Julian Assange that has been so outraged by the governments of the United States, Britain, Sweden, and other allied capitalist governments? In fact, his only “crime” is informing and exposing real documents showing the American crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan to the world public opinion and to the international media. Assange had said that the US government was trying to divert public opinion from the thousands killed in the Afghanistan and Iraq war by retaliating for his actions. WikiLeaks had leaked about 400,000 classified military documents about US killings and crimes against the defenceless people of Iraq and another 77,000 similar documents of USA crimes against the Afghan people. Assange and his associates showed that these documents are clear examples of war crimes. Therefore, it should be said that the actions of the police and the court rulings of these countries against Julian Assange are political decisions and not judicial and legal judgment.

 The efforts of Western governments to extradite him to the United States and imprison him are another step towards the suppression of freedom and basic human rights. But the efforts of the United States and other repressive capitalist governments to conceal their crimes against the masses by arresting and even killing Julian Assange and destroying documents cannot be effective. Because there are millions of people who, as living witnesses in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Yemen, Libya, Bosnia, Rwanda and elsewhere, tell how, during the wars waged by these same powers and capitalist governments, their towns and countries were destroyed under heavy bombardments and how their parents, brothers and sisters, children and friends were murdered in front of their eyes.

The revelations of WikiLeaks and Julian Assange himself against the great powers of capitalism gained the support of public opinion and free and progressive humanity around the world. So far, many protests have been held by journalists, newspapers, bloggers, leftists, communists, and defenders of freedom of expression and human rights in support of him. During a protest rally taking place outside the court and during the trial, WikiLeaks Secretary-General Herr Asano said: “Today is a black day for journalism. Mr. Assange has been accused of conspiracy while doing journalism and exposing war crimes”.

Defending and supporting Julian Assange is defending freedom of expression and basic human rights, and it must be defended. It is our duty to defend Julian Assange as we will be defending unrestricted freedom of expression, thought and belief, and demand his immediate release. We call on all free and freedom loving people around the world to stand up for Julian Assange and demand his immediate release.

Bureau of International Relations of the Communist Party of Iran

13 December 2021

Email: international@cpiran.org