WikiLeaks frontman Julian Assange yesterday started his fifth year camped out in the Ecuadoran embassy in London, an occasion his supporters planned to mark with events celebrating whistle-blowers.
Supporters said they were planning to stage songs, speeches and readings in several European cities.
Assange, 44, is wanted for questioning over a 2010 rape allegation in Sweden, but has been inside Ecuador’s UK mission for four full years in a bid to avoid extradition.
The anti-secrecy campaigner, who denies the allegation, walked into the embassy of his own free will on June 18, 2012, with Britain on the brink of sending him to Stockholm, and has not left since.
His lawyers said he is angry that Swedish prosecutors are still maintaining the European arrest warrant against him.
The Australian former computer hacker fears that from Sweden he could be extradited to the US over WikiLeaks’ release of 500,000 secret military files, where he could face a long prison sentence.
Listed participants in yesterday’s anniversary events include Patti Smith, Brian Eno, P.J. Harvey, Noam Chomsky, Yanis Varoufakis, Ai Weiwei (艾未未), Vivienne Westwood, Michael Moore and Ken Loach.
Croatian philosopher Srecko Horvat, an event organizer, said: “We live in a critical time. We are gathering all around the world on June 19 to speak out for Julian, because he has spoken out for all of us.”
Veteran leftist filmmaker Loach said Britain’s legal system was “being manipulated to keep a brave man in isolation” and that “all who care about freedom of information should demand that the threats made against Julian should be lifted.”
“He should be able to leave his place of safety without fear of deportation or being handed over to those who intend him harm,” Loach added.
A hero to supporters and a dangerous egocentric to detractors, Assange cofounded WikiLeaks in 2006 and has been portrayed in two movies in recent years.
Assange has compared living inside the embassy — which has no garden, but is in the plush Knightsbridge district, near Harrods department store — to life on a space station.
His 4.6m by 4m room is divided into an office and a living area. He has a treadmill, shower, microwave and sun lamp, and spends most of his day at his computer.
He got a cat last month to give him some company.
Last month a Stockholm district court maintained a European arrest warrant against Assange, rejecting his lawyers’ request to have it lifted.
“The court considers that Julian Assange is still suspected of rape ... and that there is still a risk that he will abscond or evade justice,” it said in a statement.
Assange is to appeal the ruling, one of his Swedish lawyers, Per Samuelsson, told reporters.
“He is not surprised, but very critical and angry,” he said.
Assange’s lawyers requested the lifting of the warrant after the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention issued a nonbinding legal opinion on Feb. 5 saying his confinement in the Ecuadoran embassy amounted to arbitrary detention by Sweden and Britain.
London and Stockholm have disputed the group’s findings.
Australians were downloading virtual private networks (VPNs) in droves, while one of the world’s largest porn distributors said it was blocking users from its platforms as the country yesterday rolled out sweeping online age restriction. Australia in December became the first country to impose a nationwide ban on teenagers using social media. A separate law now requires artificial intelligence (AI)-powered chatbot services to keep certain content — including pornography, extreme violence and self-harm and eating disorder material — from minors or face fines of up to A$49.5 million (US$34.6 million). The country also joined Britain, France and dozens of US states requiring
ACTIONABLE ADVICE: The majority of chatbots tested provided guidance on weapons, tactics and target selections, with Perplexity and Meta AI deemed to be the least safe From school shootings to synagogue bombings, leading artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots helped researchers plot violent attacks, according to a study published on Wednesday that highlighted the technology’s potential for real-world harm. Researchers from the nonprofit watchdog Center for Countering Digital Hate and CNN posed as 13-year-old boys in the US and Ireland to test 10 chatbots, including ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Perplexity, Deepseek and Meta AI. Eight of the chatbots assisted the make-believe attackers in more than half the responses, providing advice on “locations to target” and “weapons to use” in an attack, the study said. The chatbots had become a “powerful accelerant for
Hungarian authorities temporarily detained seven Ukrainian citizens and seized two armored cars carrying tens of millions of euros in cash across Hungary on suspicion of money laundering, officials said on Friday. The Ukrainians were released on Friday, following their detention on Thursday, but Hungarian officials held onto the cash, prompting Ukraine to accuse Hungary’s Russia-friendly government of illegally seizing the money. “We will not tolerate this state banditism,” Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha said. The seven detained Ukrainians were employees of the Ukrainian state-owned Oschadbank, who were traveling in the two armored cars that were carrying the money between Austria and
Kosovar President Vjosa Osmani on Friday after dissolving the Kosovar parliament said a snap election should be held as soon as possible to avoid another prolonged political crisis in the Balkan country at a time of global turmoil. Osmani said it is important for Kosovo to wrap up the upcoming election process and form functional institutions for political stability as the war rages in the Middle East. “Precisely because the geopolitical situation is that complex, it is important to finish this electoral process which is coming up,” she said. “It is very hard now to imagine what will happen next.” Kosovo, which declared
RSS