Group asks Lula political asylum for Julian Assange in Brazil

A group of scientists, journalists, professors, former ministers and trade unionists will ask President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) that Brazil grant political asylum to Australian Julian Assange, founder of WikiLeaks. The information was provided by columnist Mônica Bergamo of Folha de S. Paulo.

The asylum application that will be delivered to Lula has the support of 2,897 people. In the letter mentioned by the newspaper, the group proposes that Lula promote an international effort “together with other countries” and claims that the PT president could follow the example of the Mexican president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who in 2022 requested political asylum for Assange to the American government.

On the last 10th, President Lula showed concern with the possible extradition of the Australian journalist to the United States, where he faces 18 accusations of espionage. In a post on social media, Lula said that Assange “did an important job of denouncing illegitimate actions by one State against another. His arrest goes against the defense of democracy and freedom of the press. It is important that we all mobilize in their defense.”

Assange had his last appeal against extradition rejected by the UK Supreme Court this week. The journalist is the founder of the WikiLeaks website and started publishing confidential US government information in 2010.

An estimated 700,000 classified documents about the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, and other operations were published on the site. The data was later used to produce journalistic content in vehicles such as The Guardian and The New York Times about alleged abuses committed by the US Armed Forces.