https://www.rt.com/uk/527928-corbyn-assange-extradition-belmarsh/
denied his extradition to the US, Jeremy Corbyn, former Labour leader,
told RT as he joined other MPs to demand a meeting with the WikiLeaks
founder in a London prison.
of parliament have come to the walls of Belmarsh maximum-security
prison in south-east London on Tuesday to protest the lack of
transparency in Assange’s case.
The MPs said their requests to
meet with the founder of the WikiLeaks whistleblower website, who is
wanted by Washington on espionage charges over the publication of
classified documents on Iraq, Afghanistan, Guantanamo Bay prison and
others, have been denied repeatedly.
They also handed a letter
that had the signatures of 20 deputies from four parties under it and
detailed their demands to the prison authorities.
Corbyn insisted that he didn’t see any valid reasoning for their requests to talk with Assange to be rejected. “The governor is trying to claim there’s discretion on it. We don’t think there’s discretion,” he explained.
The
politician, who led the Labour Party between 2015 and 2020, said that
over the years he had visited inmates in many prisons, including
Belmarsh, as a member of parliament. “It’s perfectly normal that MPs are granted with due process a facility of a visit,” he said.
“We
now want a group of us to talk to Julian, probably via video link, in
order that we can discuss his case and help to form our own opinions and
encourage other members to understand their role in what I hope would
be a very strong campaign to prevent his extradition away from this
country.”
Assange can’t be extradited to the US; moreover, he should’ve been set free by Britain months ago, Corbyn pointed out.
A UK court had refused Washington’s extradition request over Assange’s poor mental health in early 2021, and “at that point, the case has ended or should have done,”
the 72-year-old socialist icon said. But the US announced plans to
appeal against the ruling, leaving Assange in Belmarsh and maintaining
the possibility of him being “extradited to the US where he would face a minimum prison sentence of 125 years.”
“We have appealed to President Biden to not go ahead with this appeal; to drop the case, so that Julian can be free,” the former Labour leader added.
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Assange was placed in Belmarsh in April 2019 for a breach of
bail, after being holed up in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London for seven
years, fleeing sexual assault allegations that never transformed into
actual charges. The WikiLeaks founder has always denied those
allegations, with his supporters insisting that he had been persecuted
for his professional activities.
Corbyn described Assange as “somebody
that has stood up for truth around the world. He’s helped us to
understand what happened in Guantanamo Bay and so many places around in
the world where the US military has done terrible things. We think that
he’s a journalist of distinction.”
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Assange’s partner Stella Moris says she plans to marry WikiLeaks co-founder in Belmarsh prison
Assange’s partner and mother of two his children, Stella Morris,
had visited him at Belmarsh on Tuesday, telling the journalists that he
was “incredibly moved” by the support provided to him by the British MPs and the public. “Julian is a political prisoner in the UK… and it has to end,” she insisted.
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