They presented the consulate with a manifesto calling for the withdrawal of all charges against the WikiLeaks founder
About twenty people gathered this Friday afternoon in front of the British consulate in Barcelona to demand the release of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.
The group “Llibertat de premsa=Catalunya Assange,” which called for the rally, delivered a manifesto to the consulate calling on the British government not to extradite him to the United States and to finally release him and drop all charges.
A speaker at the rally (which included musician Lluís Llach) told reporters: “It seems that there will soon be a verdict on Julian’s extradition in the UK and we don’t want to let that happen.”
In addition, he assured that “the fight is for freedom of the press throughout the world, for the right to truthful information.”
FREEDOM OF THE PRESS
The manifesto sent to the consulate acknowledges a “concern about the state of democratic journalism” and cites as examples the cases of Assange and the Spanish reporter Pablo González (who has been in preventive detention in Poland for 16 months and is accused of espionage). Polish security services) and Jamal Khashoggi, murdered in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul (Turkey) in 2018.
“We demand that journalists be able to practice their profession without restrictions on their personal freedom and individual rights,” says the text, in which the group also calls for states to protect and guarantee the professional freedom of journalists.
The text adds that his extradition from the United Kingdom to the United States “will set a serious precedent for many other similar cases in Western democracies.”
Assange, who has been imprisoned in the United Kingdom since April 2019, faces 18 criminal charges in the United States and will face espionage charges when he is finally transferred to the North American country.
