Lula criticizes possible extradition of Julian Assange to the United States

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (PT) said this Saturday (10th) that he is concerned about the possible extradition of Australian journalist Julian Assange from the United Kingdom to the United States, where he faces 18 charges 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.

The Australian journalist was sheltered in the Ecuadorian embassy for seven years until he was arrested in 2019 in London. The wife, Stella Assange, said that a new hearing will be held next week, in which the companion will make a new appeal.

“We remain optimistic that we will win and that Julian will not be extradited to the United States, where he faces charges that could result in him spending the rest of his life in a maximum security prison for publishing true information that revealed war crimes committed by the US government. ”, he said on social media.

This is not the first time that Lula has criticized Assange’s extradition. In May, the president called the arrest a “disgrace” during a visit to England for the heart of King Charles III.

“It is a shame that a journalist who denounced the frauds of one State against the others is arrested, condemned to die in jail, and we do nothing to free him”, he said at the time.

In another statement, in 2020, the Brazilian president even declared that Assange should be treated as a “hero” for disclosing the documents. The speech took place at a meeting with the journalist’s father in Geneva, Switzerland.