Julian Assange threatened with extradition, Macron urged to act

POLITICS – This is a major setback for Julian Assange and a cause for concern for part of the French political class. This Friday, December 10, the British justice canceled on appeal the refusal to extradite the whistleblower to the United States where he would incur a heavy penalty for revealing confidential documents thanks to Wikileaks.

A decision that immediately made many politicians scream on our side of the Channel. Thus, from rebellious France to the Patriots through the ex-LREM deputy Cédric Villani, calls for France to intervene have multiplied.

“Shame on those who let it happen”, launches for example Jean-Luc Mélenchon, when the mathematician and deputy assures us that “France must react”. Same story on the side of the Communist presidential candidate Fabien Roussel who deplores the “terrible message” sent “to the defenders of press freedom”.

Many public figures are therefore asking that France grant political asylum to the person who allowed confidential information on American activities in Iraq and Afghanistan to be made public and disseminated to the world.

Thus, for the Insubordinate Antoine Léaument, “Macron should have welcomed Assange to France, given him nationality and the legion of honor for services rendered to the Nation”. An opinion shared by her colleague Mathilde Panot who considers that Paris has “an immense debt” to Assange, a man she “abandoned”.

Beyond politics, several associations for the defense of individual freedoms also reacted after the announcement of the judicial decision. Anticor, Reporters Without Borders, Amnesty International and Acrimed have notably taken a stand against the possibility of Julian Assange’s extradition to the United States.

All of them see this possibility as a serious attack on the freedoms of expression and information. “It’s a travesty of justice,” even concludes Amnesty International. In recent years, calls for France to grant political asylum to Emmanuel Macron have been repeated many times, but the executive has not yet responded favorably.

In mid-November, deputies had pleaded for the founder of WikiLeaks to benefit from “political asylum” in France, in order to escape prosecution by the United States.

A motion for a resolution had been signed by forty elected officials from all sides, including François Ruffin (LFI) and Jean Lassalle (Freedoms and Territories), to affirm that “France cannot remain silent” in the face of the Australian’s fate. . On November 17, the National Assembly adopted at first reading a bill aimed at strengthening the protection of whistleblowers.

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