The focus of our most recent livestream discussion could not have been anything other than the case of Julian Assange, as the WikiLeaks founder faces extradition to the United States for the crime of journalism.

It is a matter close to the heart of everyone at DiEM25, and to nobody more than our co-founder Srećko Horvat, a personal friend of Assange, who gave an impassioned speech about the ongoing ordeal.

Srećko Horvat on Assange extradition case

“Allow me to be personal from the very start, on what is the first day of the court proceedings at the court in London, because the personal is political, and the political is personal. And it’s very personal if you plan to kill my friend. And if you plan to kill the most courageous publisher of the 21st century,

“[Extradition] will have dire consequences, not only on freedom of press, not only on media, not only on whistleblowing. It will have dire consequences on democracy or at least what is still left of democracy on this continent called Europe, but also what is still left of democracy in the United States.

“Because we have to say clearly, and I have been saying this for years, and DiEM25 has been saying this for years, that Julian Assange is a political prisoner. Take Navalny and what happened the other day. Now whatever I might think or you might think of Navalny, it is a fact that he was killed by Putin.

“And in a similar way, it will be a fact that if Julian Assange dies in Belmarsh prison in the United Kingdom, or if he dies at the Alexandria prison in Virginia, United States, he will [have been] killed by Biden and by the UK government. And if you think this is an exaggeration, it was sufficient to look at the court proceedings today and to listen to what the lawyers of Julian Assange and WikiLeaks have said today.

“They have clearly and convincingly presented, not only today, but for years already now, evidence that the CIA and the US government planned to poison Julian Assange. Navalny was poisoned again to take this parallel, and then as you know, he ended up somewhere in the Arctic Circle in a penal colony and died there. Julian Assange was attempted to be poisoned by the CIA. He was attempted to be kidnapped by the CIA. This plan was presented to Donald Trump, and now he wants to be transferred into another penal colony for hundred 75 years in prison in Alexandria in a supermax prison, which would basically be a death sentence. So what’s the difference? Vladimir Putin is killing his opposition [and] Joe Biden and the so-called west is calling is killing their opposition.

“They’re killing Julian Assange because what they want is to cover up their crimes. The crimes which were revealed by WikiLeaks, which were revealed about the atrocities which were committed by the United States government in Afghanistan, in Iraq. And, you know, he was charged by the Espionage Act, and it’s really important to remind what the Espionage Act is. I mean, can you imagine we are in the 21st century, and there’s still a law from 1917, which is the year of the October revolution when the first World War is still taking place. And according to that law, they want to imprison a journalist, a publisher who is not even a citizen of the United States.

“And it’s worth remembering, especially today, who were the others charged by the notorious Espionage Act for their activities, and they were all great Democrats. One of them, Eugene Depps. The other ones: Emma Goldman, Alexander Bergman, Daniel Ellsberg, Edward Snowden. The list in whose company Julian Assange is long, and he should be proud, and we are proud of him to be in this company of courageous people who were charged by the Espionage Act. Also, Julian Assange is in the company of a tradition which lasts more than 2,000 years.

“He’s in the company of Socrates who was also poisoned, who was killed for telling the truth. And here I must say, there is this famous quote by Julian Assange that “if wars can be started by lies, peace can be achieved by truth”. But I must say today that truth as such is not enough. What we have to do is to mobilise and organise, and we have to fight.

“That’s why I would like to propose a little anecdote at the end of my speech. The anecdote comes from the ashes of the Third Reich. So one night in 1933, a man climbs the stage of a cabaret in Berlin, and he raises his hands in a Nazi salute. And he starts by saying: “Heil, what’s his name again?”

“And as soon as soon as he said this, the Gestapo rushed on the stage, took him out, and the guy ended up for 12 years in different concentration camps. Somehow he succeeded in surviving. And after 12 years of [being in] concentration camps, he returns. The first thing he does, he goes to the stage of the same cabaret in Berlin – the audience is perplexed what’s happening now because it was already aa bit of denazification – and you know what he says? He says: “Anyway, let me continue [from] where I was rudely interrupted.”

“And I think this is a lesson for our struggle. Julian Assange is in one form or the other, for already 15 years, caged. He didn’t see the sun for more than a decade – it might last for years, but let us be like that man who was fighting the Nazis and making fun of them.

“Let us consider this as a rude interruption in our struggle, and let us continue this struggle because today is just the first day. Tomorrow is the second day. But if it’s decided that he will not be extradited, it might again take a long time. He’s already almost for five years in prison, and what I see, what I feel, is that actually the United States government would be the happiest if they just leave him in prison until the US elections are finished, if they silence him, because they silenced him already.

“And that’s why I think besides the great struggle of support which is happening in Europe, we should also focus on the United States. We should bring the struggle back to the United States because that’s the place where this struggle will be decided. It’s not the UK. It’s not the court. It is the United States.

“And if Julian Assange is a political prisoner, and he is a political prisoner, only politics can decide this case.”

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