02 October 2024, Brussels.
The Parliamentary Assembly of the European Council recognized Julian Assange, who spent five years in a British prison of particularly high security, as a political prisoner the press service of the organization reported on the PACE website on October 3.
The Assembly adopted a resolution “on the sentencing and imprisonment of Julian Assange in terms of human rights violations.” The document says that the application of punishment against him under the Espionage Act for being a journalist makes him a political prisoner.
Eighty-eight people voted in favor of the resolution, with 13 against and another 20 abstaining. Among those who voted against the document were mainly MPs from Britain and Poland.
On October 1, Julian Assange spoke for the first time since his release about the five years he spent in the maximum security Belmarsh prison in London awaiting extradition to the United States. The hearing at which Assange spoke was organized by the PACE committee on legal affairs and human rights. Earlier in September, the committee issued a report that “expressed deep concern about the disproportionate treatment of Assange.”
PACE also called on the United States to investigate the alleged war crimes and human rights violations that Assange and the WikiLeaks website he founded published.
Source: Rossa Primavera News Agency
