DiEM25 Advisory Panel member has been kept at the high-security facility since 2019 following seven years inside the Ecuadorian embassy
Journalist, activist and DiEM25 Advisory Panel member Julian Assange is set to spend his 51st birthday (July 3) in Belmarsh prison.
After spending seven years inside the Ecuadorian embassy in London amid fears of US prosecution, he has since been kept at Belmarsh – a high-security prison – where his health has significantly worsened.
Assange remains behind bars in the harshest of circumstances for leaking classified documents in 2010 and 2011 that revealed war crimes, while the crimes which he exposed remain unpunished.
In what is clearly a tactic from the UK and the US governments to censor others from coming forward and revealing similar crimes, Assange is being made an example of.
The abhorrent decision made by UK Home Secretary Priti Patel to approve his extradition to the United States is only further evidence of this.
We would like to wish Julian Assange a happy birthday, although it is hard to imagine that there could be anything ‘happy’ about it given the horrendous predicament he has been placed in.
The only way any sort of happiness regarding Assange was to prevail would be, firstly, for his extradition to be overturned and, above all, that he is released immediately.
Support Assange by organising an action in your local area
Julian Assange’s life is in danger and, at this crucial moment, we call on all DiEM25 local collectives to take to the streets of European cities on his birthday, Sunday July 3, to call for his freedom.
We ask you to print and use the Assange masks (PDFs provided below), take your DiEM25 banner(s) and make as much noise as you can in your town or city. If possible, we recommend you organise your action(s) in front of the UK embassy in your country.
What to do
- Print out a mask in your language. The masks can also handed out as flyers to the public. We recommend printing on DiN A4 200g paper double-sided.
- Mobilise people in your Local Collective / your local area and take your DiEM25 banner (if you have one) out to the centre of your town or city or straight to the UK embassy.
- Action Wear your mask and stand in solidarity, demanding the release of Julian Assange! Make sure to distribute the masks as flyers to passers-by, to spread the word of DiEM25 and our fight for Assange.
- Alternatively Create your own We Are Millions exhibition by printing out the following materials.
- Document Make sure to take photographs and videos and post them on your Local Collective social media using #DiEM25 and #FreeAssange, or send them to our Comms team at comms@diem25.org.
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