‘Exposing War Crimes Is Not a Crime’: Assange’s Supporters Protest Outside UK Home Office

LONDON (Sputnik) - Supporters of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who is facing extradition to the United States, have gathered outside the UK Home Office demanding his release, a Sputnik correspondent reported on Tuesday.
Sputnik
Several dozen protesters with posters and banners in support of Assange are chanting for his release in front of the office. The police are on site.
Assange's wife Stella, who came to the Home Office building with their two children, appealed from the rostrum to the Home Secretary, the entire department and the British government as a whole with a call to release WikiLeaks founder.
"They must do the right thing - they must block the extradition. This is a political matter and it has a political solution," she said.
Labour lawmaker and former Shadow Secretary for Justice Richard Burgon stressed that Assange's "political extradition" should not be allowed and if the Home Secretary decides in favor, it will threaten the freedom of press and serve as a warning to anyone who exposes war crimes.
Richard Burgon on Twitter
Earlier on Tuesday, Assange's defense filed a representation to UK Home Secretary Priti Patel to block his extradition to the US.
In April, the UK Westminster Magistrate's Court formally approved the extradition of Assange to the US. Whether he would be extradited or not now rests with UK Home Secretary Priti Patel.
WikiLeaks was founded by Assange on October 4, 2006, but rose to prominence in 2010 when it began to publish large-scale leaks of classified government information, especially from the US.
The WikiLeaks founder has been on remand at the Belmarsh maximum-security prison in southeast London since October 2020, after serving an 11-month sentence for breaking bail conditions. In 2012, instead of appearing in court as his bail conditions demanded, Assange sought shelter in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where he remained until 2019 over concerns that he might otherwise end up extradited to the US.
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