Julian Assange is an Example of Courage: President Maduro
Julian Assange. Photo: X/ @ItsChrisOnX
June 25, 2024 Hour: 8:08 am
Lopez Obrador, Sheinbaum, Diaz-Canel, and Petro also celebrated the release of the Australian journalist.
On Monday, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro celebrated the release of Julian Assange, whom he described as an “example of courage and bravery in the battle for truth.”
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“In the name of the people of Venezuela, we embrace and congratulate Julian Assange on his release. It is the triumph of freedom and humanity’s struggle for the respect of human rights,” he said.
On Monday, other progressive Latin American leaders also celebrated the release of the Australian journalist who founded WikiLeaks.
Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador: “I celebrate the release of Julian Assange from prison. At least in this case, the Statue of Liberty did not remain an empty symbol; it is alive and happy like millions in the world.”
Mexican President-elect Claudia Sheinbaum: “For us, Julian represents truth and freedom of expression. Mexico City is a progressive city that has always defended fundamental freedoms and the right to free access to information.”
Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel: “The long and cruel punishment imposed on him for his denunciations of imperial crimes will remain in the memory of the people as proof of how little his jailers believe in press freedom.”
Colombian President Gustavo Petro: “I congratulate Julian Assange on his freedom. Assange’s eternal imprisonment and torture was an attack against press freedom on a global scale. His crime was to denounce the massacre of civilians in Iraq by the US war action. Now the massacre is repeated in Gaza.”
Former Bolivian President Evo Morales: “We are very happy about the freedom of Julian Assange. He was imprisoned for many years for exposing the U.S. crimes to the world. He helped us reveal and dismantle the lies that justify wars and invasions. It is a day of joy for the fight for peace.”
Assange was granted bail by the High Court in London and was released at Stansted Airport in the afternoon, where he boarded a plane and left the United Kingdom.
WikiLeaks revealed that Assange reached an agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice that will allow him to return to Australia and end a long judicial saga over the leaking of classified documents.
Assange will appear on Wednesday at 9:00 AM local time in a court in the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S. territory in the Pacific Ocean, to finalize this agreement with the Department of Justice.
The U.S. justice system had accused Assange of up to 18 offenses for violating the Espionage Act due to one of the largest leaks of classified information in U.S. history in 2010, which revealed secrets of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as data on detainees at Guantanamo Bay, among other issues.
According to the agreement reached with the Department of Justice, Assange will plead guilty on Wednesday to a single charge of conspiring to obtain and disseminate classified information illegally.
The agreement, which still needs to be approved by a judge, states that Assange would only be sentenced to 62 months in prison, equivalent to the time he has already served in Belmarsh high-security prison.
Autor: teleSUR/ JF
Fuente: EFE
