Reporters Without Borders demands immediate release of Julian Assange – Washington Examiner

Reporters Without Borders is "alarmed" by WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange's health and demanded his immediate release.

The international nonprofit organization, previously known as Reporters Sans Frontieres, also said the United States "should cease" its plans to charge Assange under the Espionage Act in a statement published Friday.

"We are alarmed by the current state of Julian Assanges health, and call for his immediate release on humanitarian grounds," said RSF secretary-general Christophe Deloire. "Assange is being targeted by the US for his journalistic-like activities, which sets a dangerous precedent for press freedom. The US should cease its persecution of Assange and drop the charges under the Espionage Act without further delay.

Assange, 48, has been a wanted man since his website WikiLeaks published Iraq War logs in 2010 that showed there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. The same year, Assange was accused of "rape, sexual molestation, and forceful coercion by Swedish officials.

In 2012, with U.S. officials hopeful of collecting Assange, Ecuadorian foreign minister Ricardo Patino granted Assange asylum in London's Ecuadorian embassy. The Swedish investigation was dropped nine years later, but the U.S. by then had a greater intention to collect the information leaker.

By 2018, the relationship between Ecuador and Assange had soured, and Ecuadorian President Lenin Moreno lashed out against Assange, labeling the Australian a "spoiled brat" before cutting off Assange's internet connection inside the embassy. In April, British officials dragged Assange out the embassy.

In June 2019, the U.S. Department of Justice requested that Assange be extradited on grounds that he "actively solicited United States classified information, including by publishing a list of Most Wanted Leaks that sought, among other things, classified documents."

Despite the complexity of the proceedings against him led by the worlds most powerful Government, Mr. Assanges access to legal counsel and documents has been severely obstructed, thus effectively undermining his most fundamental right to prepare his defence, said UN special rapporteur on torture Nils Melzer in November.

Several clinicians who visited Assange in early 2018 wrote an opinion piece in the Guardian stating that Assange "badly needs care but he cant get it."

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Reporters Without Borders demands immediate release of Julian Assange - Washington Examiner