WikiLeaks delegation meets Bolivian President Luis Arce to discuss ongoing prosecution of Julian Assange/ President calls for release of Assange

Bolivia President, Luis [Lucho] Arce, received WikiLeaks Editor-in-Chief Kristinn Hrafnsson and Joseph Farrell, WikiLeaks Ambassador, in the capital La Paz on Saturday at the Casa Grande del Pueblo (17 December 2022) to discuss the case of WikiLeaks’ publisher Julian Assange who has been detained for his publications which exposed evidence of government crime, corruption and brazen human rights violations and faces 175 years in prison for exposing these acts in the public interest.

In a private meeting with the president and the Minister of the Presidency, Maria Nela Prada, President Arce spoke frankly of the threat to press freedom and the necessity to uphold human rights and the right to know. The president was firm in his support of Julian Assange and the desire to see him a free man.

This follows previous meetings over the last month with President-elect Lula of Brazil, Argentina’s President Alberto Fernández and President Gustavo Petro of Colombia all of whom declared their support for the WikiLeaks publisher and called on authorities to cease their prosecution for the simple act of journalism.

Last week, almost two dozen Human Rights and Free Press groups urged the end of Julian Assange’s prosecution, noting that ‘The U.S. prosecution of Assange undermines the country’s ability to defend journalists against repression by authoritarian and other rights-abusing regimes abroad’

https://cpj.org/2022/12/cpj-partners-send-letter-calling-for-us-to-drop-charges-against-julian-assange/

Last month, the editors and publishers of The New York Times, The Guardian, Le Monde, El País and Der Spiegel – the five media partners who first partnered with Assange – called for his immediate release 

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2022/nov/28/media-groups-urge-us-drop-julian-assange-charges

Last week Julian Assange’s wife, Stella Assange, attended the European Parliaments Sakharov Prize ceremony, which the publisher was nominated as a finalist. Speaking before the event at a Press Seminar for the prestigious prize Stella Assange urged an end to the persecution of her husband saying ‘Julian is suffering profoundly…our children need their father and this injustice must end’

All major Human Rights, Media, Free Speech & Civil Liberties organizations oppose the extradition attempts against the WikiLeaks publisher who faces a 175 year sentence if extradited to the US for his publishing work

Amnesty International: “Were Julian Assange to be extradited or subjected to any other transfer to the USA, Britain would be in breach of its obligations under international human rights law”

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