Assange is awaiting the resolution of the extradition appeal filed by the United States, which attributes 18 counts of espionage to him.
The Austrian Journalists Club (ÖJC) today recognized WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange with the Karl Renner Solidarity Award for his commitment to “the truth about crimes committed by governments and companies.”
The award, given to journalists imprisoned for their informative work, It also aims to demand from the United Kingdom the “immediate release” of Assange, who is being held in pre-trial detention in the Belmarsh High Security Prison (London).
Assange is awaiting the resolution of the extradition appeal filed by the United States, which attributes him 18 counts of espionage and disclosure of highly classified documents, which faces him a sentence of 170 years in prison.
In a statement, ÖJC President Oswald Klotz criticized that “Powerful countries like the United States, the United Kingdom and Sweden conspire” against someone who has not been convicted by any court.
In previous editions of the Karl Renner Prize, journalists Deniz Yücel, Mesale Tolu and Max Zirngast were awarded, persecuted and imprisoned by the Turkish government.
The ÖJC, which has worked since 1977 to guarantee freedom of the press and human rights, He plans to deliver the award for this edition next month.
As for Assange, the president of the Austrian Journalists Club maintains that He “did the only right thing” to report on issues such as the United States’ actions in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and the extrajudicial detentions at Guantanamo.
The ÖJC regrets that Assange “has been detained in inhumane conditions for two years in the British maximum security prison HMP Belmarsh in London without having been convicted.”
Arrested in the UK
The 50-year-old Wikileaks founder was arrested in 2010 in London at the request of Sweden for alleged sexual offenses that were eventually shelved.
Since then, Assange has been under house arrest in the United Kingdom and held between 2012 and 2019 in the Ecuadorian embassy in the British country.
Currently, the activist is in provisional prison in London by decision of the British justice, which in January of this year rejected extradition to the United States. (I)
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