The Irish Anti War Movement, along with several other anti-war and social justice groups in Ireland, has written an open letter to Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney calling on him to lobby by all means necessary, including via Ireland’s current membership of the United Nations Security Council, the British and United States Governments, to release the campaigning Wikileaks editor and journalist, Julian Assange.
The letter, now launched as an Uplift campaign, can be viewed and signed here – https://my.uplift.ie/petitions/ask-minister-simon-coveney-to-speak-up-for-julian-assange
The call to Simon Coveney has been supported so far by many prominent Irish people including: former Nobel Peace laureate Mairead Corrigan Maguire, Christy Moore, Sinéad Cusack, Stephen Rea, Eamonn Mc Cann, Dr. Harry Browne, Raymond Deane, Trevor Joyce, John F. Deane, Honor Heffernan, Dr. Ronit Lentin, Prof. Ray Kinsella, Trevor Hogan and Pbp TD’s Richard Boyd Barrett, Paul Murphy, Independent TD Thomas Pringle and MEP’s Clare Daly, Mick Wallace. The open latter is part of a campaign in Ireland to draw public attention to the fate of the imprisoned journalist and to put pressure on the Irish Governmnet to call for his release.
A series of solidarity events for Julian Assange organised by Free Assange Ireland and supported by the IAWM were held across the island of Ireland from Dublin to Galway and from Derry to Kerry on Saturday 23rd October.
Free Assange Ireland link here – https://www.facebook.com/Free-Assange-Ireland-108045181097849/
The hearing of the appeal by the US Government at the end of October against the decision of a British Court not to extradite him to the USA is a very serious move. US prosecutors have indicted Assange on 17 espionage charges and one charge of computer misuse over WikiLeaks’ publication of thousands of leaked military and diplomatic documents. These could lead to a long prison sentence in the US. Assange’s lawyer has accused US lawyers of seeking to “minimise the severity of Mr Assange’s mental disorder and suicide risk”.
Jim Roche, PRO of the IAWM said:
“This is clearly a politically motivated case simply because Julian Assange exposed US military and other war crimes, human rights abuses and corruption in the US-led wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. He spoke truth to power and has been vindicated. His continued incarceration and threatened extradition to the US is a threat not only to him but to all journalists, editors and publishers, to the cause of investigative journalism, to press freedom and to freedom of speech generally. That is why the IAWM along with others are calling on Minister Simon Coveney to speak up for Julian Assange and to use his influence to call for his immediate release.“