Allowing Julian’s extradition represents a threat to freedom of the press and a serious warning to those who question the repressive policies and human rights violations committed by the United States, said the Argentine intellectual in a letter released here by an organization that brings together supporters of the Australian journalist.

Yesterday, a judge of the Westminster Magistrates Court authorized Assange to be handed over to U.S. authorities, who intend to try him for publishing in WikiLeaks secret files exposing war crimes committed by their military in Iraq and Afghanistan and other compromising documents for U.S. diplomacy.

However, the magistrate left in the hands of the British Home Secretary, Priti Patel, the final decision on the fate of the cyberactivist, who has been locked up in a London prison since April 2019, when Ecuador revoked the asylum granted to him seven years earlier and handed him over to the British police.

In the letter released by the Campaign Against Assange’s Extradition, Perez Esquivel assures that the 50-year-old Australian journalist is a victim of the repressive U.S. policy for defending freedom of the press.

We call on the media and journalists who fight for freedom to demand the release of Julian Assange, who with civic courage published documents that demonstrate human rights violations committed by the United States, stressed the activist who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1980.

If handed over to U.S. prosecutors, the WikiLeaks founder could be sentenced to 175 years in prison starting from the 17 charges against him.

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