A group of Brazilian personalities, including former ministers, scientists and intellectuals, published a letter on Wednesday asking Brazilian President Lula da Silva to offer political asylum to Australian Julian Assange, currently imprisoned in London.
“We respectfully request your support and the adoption of legal and diplomatic measures so that Brazil grants political asylum to Julian Assange as soon as possible,” say the nearly 2,900 subscribers, including journalists, teachers, trade unionists, and leaders of various organizations. . of civil society.
The signatories cite the various occasions on which Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva came out in defense of Julian Assange, whom he described as a “prisoner for denouncing the traps of a State”, and the freedom of the press.
According to the authors of the letter, if the British court confirms its decision to extradite him to the United States of America, the WikiLeaks founder could be sentenced to 175 years in prison for having “revealed real facts about the United States.”
“Specifically, we propose that you promote an international effort together with other countries, starting with the BRICS [fórum que engloba Brasil, Rússia, Índia, China e África do Sul] and the G20, to obtain the approval of this political asylum by the British Government”, the letter reads.
According to the signatories, the petition can be presented directly by the Brazilian Government to the United Kingdom with the support of world personalities such as Pope Francis, actor Leonardo DiCaprio and Nobel Peace Prize winner Adolfo Pérez Esquivel.
“We believe that, regardless of the result, this vigorous effort in defense of Assange will contribute to further mark the humanitarian and progressive position of the Brazilian government in the world,” the text adds.
During his visit to London in May, where he attended the coronation of King Carlos III, Lula da Silva described it as “a shame that a journalist who revealed the traps of one State against others is sentenced to die in prison and that nobody does “. anything for your freedom.”
Assange, accused by the United States of 18 crimes of espionage and computer intrusion, has spent four years in a London prison, where he was admitted after Ecuador revoked his political asylum and expelled him from its embassy in the British capital.
He was initially detained in 2010, after WikiLeaks exposed alleged US war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan, at the request of Sweden, which considered him a suspect in alleged sex crimes, for which he was never charged.
Among the signatories of the letter to Lula da Silva are the communist deputy Jandira Feghali, the former ministers Renato Ribeiro, Ana de Hollanda, Sergio Machado Rezende and José Gomes Temporão, the neurologist Sidarta Ribeiro, the musician Jaques Morelembaum and the scientist Ennio Candotti.
Source: TSF
